Cognitive Biases and Fallacies of Reasoning

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering cognitive biases, media algorithms, and presentation fallacies of reasoning.

Framing Effect

A cognitive bias where people react differently to information depending on how it is presented or formatted (e.g., Fox hyping what Republicans do while Democrats make it look bad, or content creators gaining more viewers due to how a post is formatted).

Recency Bias

The tendency for people to believe and prioritize more recent events over past ones (e.g., believing newly restated news over older reports, or finding a video posted the same day more believable and relatable).

Illusory Truth Effect

The phenomenon where repeated statements are more likely to be believed even if they are wrong (e.g., repeated news topics making viewers perceive an event as more impactful, or algorithms repeatedly serving the same topic).

Confirmation Bias

The tendency for people to favor information that backs up their preexisting beliefs (e.g., Americans watching Fox or CNN depending on their political views, or social media algorithms feeding users content they already like).

Availability Heuristic

A mental shortcut where people make judgments based on whatever information comes to mind the fastest (e.g., news immediately highlighting plane crashes or algorithms serving concerning events to grab attention).

Negativity Bias

The tendency for people to be more locked in on negative information compared to positive information (e.g., news broadcasts focusing on the worst topics to maintain engagement, or negative events widely spreading across social media).

Bandwagon Effect

A cognitive bias where people make decisions based on what many others say or do (e.g., agreeing with a social media post simply because it has high engagement/likes, or adopting anti-foreign rhetoric to feel united).

Anchoring Bias

The tendency to fixate on the first piece of information encountered and seclude oneself to it (e.g., forming an opinion solely on a news headliner, or dismissing subsequent videos as wrong based on the first minimal video seen).

In-group / Out-group Bias

The tendency to favor one's own group while distrusting others (e.g., voters becoming too polarized on the political left or right to see real national issues, or uncritically siding with a favored creator during a conflict).

Overconfidence Bias

A bias where individuals are heavily reliant on their own knowledge and shut out others, or oversell their expertise (e.g., a viewer assuming they know more than a news report and refusing to listen, or a creator exaggerating their knowledge to retain viewers).

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

A fallacy that assumes one event caused another simply because it occurred first, despite there being no actual correlation (e.g., falsely claiming vaccines cause autism merely because the two events occurred around the same time).

Red Herring

A fallacy where an irrelevant side topic is introduced to distract from the real issue (e.g., Harry S. Truman targeting communist subversion to divert attention away from his own problems).

Appeal to Authority

A fallacy treating an argument as true or false solely because an authority figure or person of high status stated it (e.g., unchecked acceptance of Nazi demands during the 1938 Munich conference regarding Czechoslovakia).

False Dilemma

A fallacy that presents an issue as having only two choices when more options actually exist, typically signaled by words like 'either' or 'must' (e.g., George W. Bush stating after 9/11, 'Either you're with us or against us').

Bandwagon Appeal

An argumentative fallacy asserting that something is true, good, or preferable simply because it is popular or widely believed (e.g., voting based on peer consensus and FOMO rather than personal beliefs, relying on phrases like 'most people agree').

Appeal to Emotion

A fallacy that manipulates feelings such as sympathy or guilt instead of using logic or evidence (e.g., charity commercials exploiting strong emotional connections and guilt-tripping viewers for money).

Hasty Generalization

A fallacy where a broad conclusion is drawn from insufficient or sub-par evidence, often signaled by sweeping words like 'all' or 'everyone' (e.g., declaring that 'California is full of bad drivers').

Ad Hominem

A fallacy where an argument attacks the person—such as their character, physical appearance, or personal traits—rather than addressing the substance of their argument (e.g., Donald Trump calling Joe Biden 'sleepy joe').

Straw Man

A fallacy that involves misrepresenting or distorting someone's original argument to make it significantly easier to attack and discredit.

Slippery Slope

A fallacy claiming that one minor initial action will inevitably snowball into an absurd disaster or catastrophe without supporting evidence (e.g., financial services claiming you will become broke without add-ons, or claiming going to a party will lead to doing drugs and dying).