The Benjamin Franklin Effect has recently been proposed as a cognitive bias psychological phenomenon. There is a tendency to continue doing something once we’ve started doing it. This applies to both positive or negative actions. If we do a favor for someone, we are more likely to do another favor for that same person in this case, than to do […]
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The cheerleader effect, or group-attractiveness effect, is a tendency to value appearances based on a comparative assessment with the surroundings. Certain traits will appear more attractive due to the perceived amplification from contrast. When looked at individually they no longer get the contrasting cheerleader effect. Surprisingly, this is a new term, from a 2008 “How I Met Your Mother” episode, […]
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The bias blind spot is how it’s easier to see others engage in cognitive biases, as opposed to seeing it within ourselves. Just as it is when we are thinking of a problem and another perspective can see something we missed, so too does the recognition of biases. It’s easier to see what is external to us (others) than to […]
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Belief is powerful. The belief bias is to give value, weight, strength and importance to an argument, not based on the argument being valid, but based on the conclusion that is already believed to be possible, probable or true. If we agree with a view, we accept the datapoints that support that position. We are biased towards the believability of […]
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Anthropomorphism and personification is taking qualities, aspects, characteristics, properties and attributes of human consciousness (thoughts, emotions, intentions, behavior) or physical forms (body, face, eye), and applying them to non-human entities, real or imagined. Anthropomorphism is seen in recent and older children’s animated movies, children literature, comics, sci-fi, other fiction, and all the way back to ancient mythologies. Anthropomorphism has been […]
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