Cognitive Bias

Notes

Cognitive biases are cases where our thoughts and actions are influenced in a way that is counter to our true desires or obligations, a "bug" in our thinking that distracts us from what we really should be thinking or doing.

General Problem

The main issue with biases is that they cause over confidence and Binary Thinking , meaning that it narrows our thinking through a problematic perspective such that we miss important details or underestimate their importance. More often, biases result from our Intuition . To combat biases, the best (although not bulletproof) method is the scientific method.

Biases

There are many kinds of different biases:

1. Attachment - which we get too attached to our ideas or objects and become blind to it's flaws while being captivated by their advantages
2. Availability Bias - we overestimate the probability of events that come easier to mind (usually the most recent or saliant ones)
3. Conformation Bias - we search only for evidence that supports our pre-existing beliefs while ignoring counter information
4. Just World Bias - we are not to blame for bad things that happen to us (just bad luck), but bad things that happen to others is their fault (and reverse for positive things)
5. McNamara Fallacy - What can't be measured isn't important
6. Present Bias - we prefer small short term benefits over large long term benefits
7. Halo effect - we think that people who are successful in one field (usually those who look good), are also capable in other fields.
8. planning fallacy - we underestimate the power of unknown to disrupt our plans, while being over confident about our ability to succeed, which causes overall underestimation of the time and resources it will take to finish a task
9. Self Bias - we prefer small benefits to ourselves over large benefits to others
10. streetlight effect - we tend to focus only what is easily solved/found, instead of where we should be focusing.
11. Survivors Bias - we tend to focus on cases that were successful, without testing to see if the same attributes existed in failed cases.
12. Dunning-kruger effect - the less we know about a subject, the more confident we are in our knowledge of it
13. Is vs Ought - we use reality as a justification for our beliefs, while ignoring whether the reality has resulted from those beliefs or due to other factors.

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