Ob Week 2 - Perception and Decision Making

Perception

A process that involves sensing various aspects of a person, task or event and forming impressions based on selected inputs

not reality - help understand behavior

Attribution Theory Aspects

internal vs external cause

Consistency - same person behave over time

Consensus - other people behave like that

Distinctiveness - person behave in other situations

Fundamental Attribution Theory Def

underestimate external for others

Self -Serving Bias

my success is internal, failure bc external

Selective Perception

Interpret what you see based on interest, background, experience, attitude

Halo Effect

drawing general impression based on 1 characteristic (tall people)

Horn Effect

drawing general bad impression based on 1 characteristic

Contrast Effect

evaluate other characters that are affected by comparisons of others recently encountered you ranked higher or lower (interviews)

Stereotyping

Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs

Perceptive Biases

Attribution Theory, Fundamental Attribution Error, Self-Serving Bias, Selective Perception, Hallo Effect, Contrast Effect, Sterotyping

Cognitive Biases

Confirmation Biases, Anchoring, Availability Bias, Sunk Cost / Escalation of Commitment

Confirmation Bias

seek info that confirms what you already think, don’t look at everything

Anchoring

Using early, first received information (“anchor”) as the basis for making judgments (African UN wheel)

Availability Bias

emphasize info readily available

Sunk Cost Bias / Escalation of Commitment

make a decision based on what already ‘lost’ like money, effort, time

Framing Bias

if loss willing to risk more to avert loss

if potential gain more risk averse

Plan A vs B

Status Quo Bias

stick with crowd

opt out vs sign up — struct important

How to Counter Act Bias

Awareness and recognize cognitive traps

neutral lens

Devil’s Advocate

Darwin’s 2 Notebooks - one with pro one with against