12 Cognitive Biases

Framing Effect

You allow yourself to be unduly influenced by context and delivery

Declinism

You see past as better than it was, and expect the future to be worse than is likely

Dunning Kruger Effect

The more you know, the less confident you are likely to be

Sunk Cost Fallacy

You irrationally cling to things that have already cost you something

Negativity Bias

You allow negative things to disproportionately influence your thinking

The Barnum Effect

You see personal specifics in vague statements by filling in the gaps

Self-Serving Bias

You believe your failures are due to external factors, yet you are personally responsible for your success

Belief Bias

If a conclusion supports your existing beliefs, you'll rationalize anything that supports it.

Curse of Knowledge Bias

Once you understand something, you presume it to be obvious to everyone.

Availability Heuristic

Your judgments are influenced by what springs most easily to mind.

The Backfire Effect

When your core beliefs are challenged, it can cause you to believe even more strongly.

Spotlight Effect

You overestimate how much people notice how you look and act.

While doing your groceries, you see two different beef products. Both cost and weigh the same. One is labeled "80% lean" and the other "20% fat". Comparing the two, you feel that 20 % fat sounds unhealthy, so you choose the 80% lean option.

Framing effect

In the good old days, people were actually connected, and they would talk to each other more.

Declinism

• An amateur chess player overestimated their performance in the upcoming chess tournament compared to their competent counterparts.

• A new employee might believe they understand the job requirements and not ask enough questions or seek feedback their supervisor.

Dunning Kruger Effect

• Finishing a book or movie you dislike just because you started it.

• continuing to study something that does not interest us simply because we have already paid a high amount in tuition fees.

Sunk cost fallacy

When a person receives several compliments but focuses on the one piece of criticism they received.

Negativity Bias

Reading your horoscope in a newspaper and realising it's surprisingly accurate

The Barnum effect

A student attributes earning a good grade in his psychology class to the fact that he is an exceptionally hard-working student who is also incredibly smart. He blames the poor grade he received in another test on having a bad teacher who gave hard exams.

Self-serving effect

all fish can swim, and salmon can swim, therefore salmon are fish

Belief bias

In a classroom setting, teachers may have difficulty if they cannot put themselves in the position of the students.

Curse of knowledge bias

Plane crashes can make people afraid of flying. However, the likelihood of dying in a car accident is far higher than dying as a passenger on an airplane.

Availability Heuristic

If a person strongly supports a political candidate and is presented with factual evidence of their misconduct, they may dismiss the evidence as biased or fake.

The backfire effect

When someone has to get up on front of people to speak, but is underprepared and is worried they are being judged by everyone, when they really are not.

Spotlight effect