Do appearances matter? They sure do for most of us, unfortunately all too much. Many of us judge people on superficial qualities when we encounter their appearances: if they are groomed, shaven, have a haircut, have nice clothes, have a nice car, have a nice house, have a nice job, etc. One of the most powerful influences is what people […]
Continue reading »
Arriving at decisions and making choices can be difficult at times as each choice we make has repercussions and consequences in the future. The choices and decisions we will make in the future depend on what we do now, just as the choices and decisions we make now have been influenced by our previous choices. Choosing one option over many […]
Continue reading »
In making decisions, there is a balance between the speed we arrive at a decision and the degree of accuracy with which that decision will give us what we expected. This is called the speed-accuracy trade-off, where hasty decisions tend to be suboptimal than slower deliberate decisions. In general, the quicker we make a decision the more error-prone it is. […]
Continue reading »
Is the world really flat? Some people believe so. And many scientists, psychologists and researchers lump them with others people who question other aspects of science that even other scientists contest (like global warming), as all being part of an ‘anti-enlightenment movement’. Is there a limit to being skeptical before it makes us poor thinkers?? You’re part of that ‘camp’ […]
Continue reading »
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 […]
Continue reading »
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, […]
Continue reading »
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 […]
Continue reading »
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 […]
Continue reading »
Misinformation (falsity) about an event that is accepted as truth makes it more difficult to recall the original details of the event as they actually happened. The falsity is the accepted visible reality, while the underlying details are covered over. sourceThis is the misinformation effect, where recall of the memories of an event become less accurate because of post-event information, […]
Continue reading »
Base rate neglect is the tendency to ignore base general information, in favor of specific (new, novel, attention grabbing) information. The base rate neglect is also known as the base rate fallacy. This bias ties into the previous biases I have covered. Please see the bottom of the post for previous biases. If something is generally understood, novel new information […]
Continue reading »