Types of Bias
Confirmation Bias:
the tendency that people have when they read information to leave out parts of the information that they don’t believe it
makes the person narrow-minded
Example: elementary school teachers not letting their students use scissors because they may cut themselves
Dunning Kruger Effect:
The bias in which people overestimate their abilities (thinking they are above everyone else)
High level of confidence
As confidence is increased the more ignorant you are, the more cultured you are you know that you are not as experienced or knowledgeable
Cultural Bias:
the tendency to assess others’ actions based on your own culture
Examples: smiling here is normal but in other countries, it is seen as an intimate gesture
Ingroup Bias:
group favoritism
when a specific person favors one person in a specific group
Outgroup bias is when you belittle other groups and ingroup is when you favor people in your own group
Decline Bias:
seeing the past was good and the present is bad (the world is getting worse)\
often reduces to a form of nostalgia
can influence ideologies that refuse to change in modern time
Example: “Back in my day” “The good old days”
Optimism/Pessimism Bias:
op: the tendency to be positive even in the worst times in your life
pes: The tendency to be negative
Example: taking an easy course and thinking you’re going to fail
Information Bias:
the tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action
the idea that if I have more information on something it will affect my choice
reasons: people like to procrastinate, or justify your choice
Selection Bias:
When people involved in a study do not represent the target population
can be caused by improper randomization
produces false results, inconsistent info, and can be more favorable towards one side
Availability Bias:
When you see something cool, crazy, or scary and you rely
Example: more likely to die during a car crash than a plane crash
Fundamental Attribution Error
Blaming something on someone’s character without actually considering the situation
Example: someone braking in the middle of the street so you get mad at him but what you don’t see is a kid running in the street in front of him
Hindsight Bias
When an event occurs and after it occurs you say you knew it was going to happen but you did not change the outcome
Example: Seeing someone walking in the path of a banana peel but you do not tell them, then after you tell them you knew they were going to slip and laugh
Anchoring bias
when you anchor yourself on initial ideas even when you don’t have a lot of information on it
Example: Everyone tells you a teacher is great before you get that class then when you get the class you hate her
Observer Bias
When someone’s opinion and or personal judgment overshadows there abilty to make an unbiased