26 Reasons Why What You Think Is Wrong

[vbloke]

A cognitive bias is something that our minds commonly do to distort our own view of reality. Here are the 26 most studied and widely accepted cognitive biases.

1. Bandwagon effect - the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Related to groupthink, herd behaviour, and manias.
   Carl Jung pioneered the idea of the collective unconscious which is considered by Jungian psychologists to be responsible for this cognitive bias.
2. Bias blind spot - the tendency not to compensate for one’s own cognitive biases.
3. Choice-supportive bias - the tendency to remember one’s choices as better than they actually were.
4. Confirmation bias - the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions.
5. Congruence bias - the tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing.
6. Contrast effect - the enhancement or diminishment of a weight or other measurement when compared with recently observed contrasting object.
7. Déformation professionnelle - the tendency to look at things according to the conventions of one’s own profession, forgetting any broader point of view.
8. Disconfirmation bias - the tendency for people to extend critical scrutiny to information which contradicts their prior beliefs and uncritically accept information that is congruent with their prior beliefs.
9. Endowment effect - the tendency for people to value something more as soon as they own it.
10. Focusing effect - prediction bias occurring when people place too much importance on one aspect of an event; causes error in accurately predicting the utility of a future outcome.
11. Hyperbolic discounting - the tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs, the closer to the present both payoffs are.
12. Illusion of control - the tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes which they clearly cannot.
13. Impact bias - the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states.
14. Information bias - the tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action.
15. Loss aversion - the tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains (see also sunk cost effects)
16. Neglect of probability - the tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty.
17. Mere exposure effect - the tendency for people to express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them.
18. Omission bias - The tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral, than equally harmful omissions (inactions).
19. Outcome bias - the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made.
20. Planning fallacy - the tendency to underestimate task-completion times.
21. Post-purchase rationalization - the tendency to persuade oneself through rational argument that a purchase was a good value.
22. Pseudocertainty effect - the tendency to make risk-averse choices if the expected outcome is positive, but make risk-seeking choices to avoid negative outcomes.
23. Selective perception - the tendency for expectations to affect perception.
24. Status quo bias - the tendency for people to like things to stay relatively the same.
25. Von Restorff effect - the tendency for an item that “stands out like a sore thumb” to be more likely to be remembered than other items.
26. Zero-risk bias - preference for reducing a small risk to zero over a greater reduction in a larger risk.

Oh and, by the way, you’ll never be able to truly gauge any of the biases you might be operating under since it’s not possible to accurately observe a system you’re part of. Now, get out there and delude yourself!


Complete list of cognitive biases - Wikipedia

[Mulder]

Wow, I'm trying to find one I haven't had at some time or other. I'm struggling ...

[Admin]

The more you read them the more you realise just how many biases you have!

The thing is, they're 'in-built' and operate automatically without us realising it. Therefore it's quite easy to assume that you yourself don't have any biases as you don't perceive them as operating in you.

A sort of "I don't have any biases" bias!!!

[Furi]

Planning Fallacy, there is not a chance I have that.

As a Procrastinator Magnus I know I wouldn't even get around to making the estimate

[Mongrel]

Planning Fallacy, there is not a chance I have that.

As a Procrastinator Magnus I know I wouldn't even get around to making the estimate

I normally go for the non commital "It'll get finished when it gets finished", failing that I tend to pad the estimate by 10-15% or so just to cover contingencies

[Mulder]

I can't help thinking that a person without any of those biases would be tedious beyond belief.

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

I can't help thinking that a person without any of those biases would be tedious beyond belief.

They would be the robocop of Skeptics though, a superhuman skeptic, banishing woo wherever they went.

[Graham Lappin]

Aagh me brains!

This really makes you think.

John - something along these lines should go on the UK Skeptics main website.

[Admin]

John - something along these lines should go on the UK Skeptics main website.

I started writing them for the main site and was storing them here until I got round to finishing some more.

As always..... it's a 'work in progress'

[Graham Lappin]

As always..... it's a 'work in progress'

Yes, I know what you mean. I will be doing what I can to help - promise.

[Pebble]

CAM bias: A tendency to believe something where the supportive reasoning relies more on religion/spiritualism than science

[Dr B]

Anyone interested in a slightly different take on heuristics and biases should read stuff by Gerd Gigerenzer.

Gigerenzer points out that the reason we have biases is that they actually work quite well in most circumstances - he tends to concentrate on this type of approach. It's an interesting position and one people should read about.

He goes against (slightly) the standard / common view of biases and heuristics. I am not saying I agree with him - but he makes some really good points.

[Trinoc]

27: Bias Bias - The tendency for thinking to seize up due to worrying all the time which biases might be being committed.

[Tim the Mage]

As me dad always said, I may have my faults but being wrong ain't one of them...


PS Spot the errors in this statement.

[Pebble]

Are biases a pre-requisite for creativity? If so is there a dose effect?

Just pondering that artistic types seem more prone to woolly thinking.