Cognitive Bias
Notes
Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking — patterns of distortion that arise not from stupidity but from how the mind efficiently manages complexity, uncertainty, and self-interest. This Map covers the major clusters of bias: how we assign cause, how we assess ourselves, how we filter evidence, how we simplify, and how we resist change.
Attribution Bias examines how we misattribute cause, credit, and blame — projecting fault onto others while protecting self-image, and confusing noise for signal.
Overconfidence and Self-Assessment covers the consistent ways we overestimate our own knowledge, abilities, and visibility to others — and why these gaps remain invisible to us.
Selective Evidence traces how attention to evidence gets systematically distorted — through availability, survivorship, confirmation, and measurement bias — leading to conclusions that feel sound but are shaped by what we noticed rather than what is true.
Simplification and Categorization looks at the mental shortcuts and categories the mind uses to reduce complexity — heuristics that are often efficient but consistently distort when applied beyond their domain.
Status Quo and Inertia addresses how the mind clings to existing situations, familiar choices, and immediate rewards — and what sustains that inertia even when better alternatives are visible.