Cognitive Biases

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence. Example: only reading news sources that align with your political views.

Anchoring bias occurs when people rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered (the "anchor") when making decisions. Example: a high initial price makes a subsequent discount seem like a great deal.

The availability heuristic is the tendency to judge the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind. Example: overestimating the risk of shark attacks because they receive heavy media coverage.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability overestimate their competence, while highly skilled individuals tend to underestimate theirs. It reflects a lack of metacognitive ability.

Hindsight bias is the tendency to believe, after an event has occurred, that one would have predicted it beforehand. Also called the "I-knew-it-all-along" effect.

The sunk cost fallacy is the tendency to continue investing in something because of previously invested resources (time, money, effort) rather than evaluating current and future value. Example: finishing a bad movie because you already paid for the ticket.

The framing effect occurs when people react differently to the same information depending on how it is presented. Example: "90% survival rate" sounds better than "10% mortality rate," even though they mean the same thing.

The bandwagon effect is the tendency to adopt beliefs or behaviors because many other people do. It is driven by social conformity and the desire to belong to the group.

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overemphasize personality traits and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior. Example: assuming a rude waiter is a bad person rather than having a bad day.

The self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute successes to internal factors (skill, effort) and failures to external factors (bad luck, unfairness). It protects self-esteem.

The halo effect is the tendency for an overall positive impression of a person to influence judgments about their specific traits. Example: assuming an attractive person is also intelligent and kind.

Negativity bias is the tendency for negative experiences, emotions, or information to have a greater impact on psychological states than positive ones of equal intensity. Bad news sticks more than good news.