I have been engaged in a politics debate with Jon for a few days and, as part of that, I thought I'd share a few cognitive biases that everyone should be aware of. The complete list is on Wikipedia and it numbers in the hundreds.
I think it is important to be aware of these biases because many people (including myself) see themselves as less biased than others, when the reality may be different (Bias blind spot, which is what this list begins with).
The ones I picked belong to the Decision-making, belief, and behavioral biases category, but the complete list is split into multiple categories.
Bias blind spot
The tendency to see oneself as less biased than other people, or to be able to identify more cognitive biases in others than in oneself
Choice-supportive bias
The tendency to remember one's choices as better than they actually were
Clustering illusion
The tendency to overestimate the importance of small runs, streaks, or clusters in large samples of random data
Confirmation bias
The tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions
Framing effect
Drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how that information is presented
Frequency illusion
The illusion in which a word, a name, or other thing that has recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards
Observer-expectancy effect
When a researcher expects a given result and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or misinterprets data in order to find it
Subjective validation
Perception that something is true if a subject's belief demands it to be true. Also assigns perceived connections between coincidences
Naïve realism
The belief that we see reality as it really is – objectively and without bias; that the facts are plain for all to see; that rational people will agree with us; and that those who don't are either uninformed, lazy, irrational, or biased
I think it is important to be aware of these biases because many people (including myself) see themselves as less biased than others, when the reality may be different (Bias blind spot, which is what this list begins with).
The ones I picked belong to the Decision-making, belief, and behavioral biases category, but the complete list is split into multiple categories.
Bias blind spot
The tendency to see oneself as less biased than other people, or to be able to identify more cognitive biases in others than in oneself
Choice-supportive bias
The tendency to remember one's choices as better than they actually were
Clustering illusion
The tendency to overestimate the importance of small runs, streaks, or clusters in large samples of random data
Confirmation bias
The tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions
Framing effect
Drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how that information is presented
Frequency illusion
The illusion in which a word, a name, or other thing that has recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards
Observer-expectancy effect
When a researcher expects a given result and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or misinterprets data in order to find it
Subjective validation
Perception that something is true if a subject's belief demands it to be true. Also assigns perceived connections between coincidences
Naïve realism
The belief that we see reality as it really is – objectively and without bias; that the facts are plain for all to see; that rational people will agree with us; and that those who don't are either uninformed, lazy, irrational, or biased
