Cognitive Bias and Decision-Making Psychology

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key cognitive biases, the researchers who identified them, and the underlying psychological mechanisms that cause systematic errors in human reasoning.

Cognitive Bias

The brain's effort to process information more efficiently, which occurs outside of self-awareness and can distort critical thinking.

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman

The psychological researchers who first introduced the concept of cognitive bias.

Confirmation Bias

The psychological tendency to look for information that confirms pre-existing beliefs.

Unconscious Bias

Social stereotypes learned through cultural interactions that occur outside of conscious control.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Attributing others' actions to personality traits while excusing one's own actions as situational.

Halo Effect

Allowing an impression in one area to influence an overall perception of a person.

Intellectual Humility

A strategy involving awareness and modesty about one's own knowledge that is effective in overcoming cognitive biases.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Continuing a behavior or project due to previous investments rather than evaluating costs objectively.

Negativity Bias

The psychological tendency to perceive negative experiences as more impactful than positive ones, which may evolutionarily benefit survival by heightening awareness of threats.

Consensus Bias

Overestimating how similar one's own beliefs are to the beliefs of others.

Overconfidence Bias

Holding a false perception of one's own talents or skills.

Anchoring Bias

Relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered during decision-making.

In-group Bias

The psychological mechanism of supporting or believing in those within one's own social group.

Hindsight Bias

Perceiving past events as more predictable after they have already occurred.

Self-serving Bias

The tendency to claim credit for successes but not for failures.

Attentional Bias

Perceiving information based on what an individual is currently focusing on.

Authority Bias

Giving more credibility to individuals who are in positions of power.

Dunning-Kruger effect

A psychological principle explaining why individuals might overestimate their abilities despite having limited evidence.

Pattern Recognition

A survival mechanism used to process information quickly which closely explains why humans develop cognitive biases.

Psychological Self-protection

The cognitive mechanism describing why people tend to seek confirming evidence for their existing beliefs.

What characteristic most distinguishes unconscious bias from cognitive bias?

Cultural learning and social stereotypes.

How might negativity bias evolutionarily benefit human survival?

By heightening awareness of potential threats

How do cognitive biases potentially impact ethical decision making in professional contexts?

They can lead to unintentional discriminatory practices