The Meaning of Biased Thinking

 

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What is cognitive bias?

A cognitive bias is a systematic error when thinking that people process and interpret information in the world that surrounds them and affects the decisions and judgments they make.

The human brain is powerful but is subject to limitations. Cognitive biases are often the result of the attempt of your brain to simplify information processing. Biases often function as general rules that help him mean the world and achieve decisions with relative speed.

Some of these biases are related to memory. The way in which an event remembers can be biased for several reasons and that, in turn, can lead to biased thought and decision making.

Other cognitive biases may be related to attention problems. Since attention is a limited resource, people must be selective about what they pay attention to the world that surrounds them.

Because of this, subtle biases can enter and influence the way you see and think about the world.

The concept of cognitive bias was first introduced by researchers Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972. Since then, researchers have described several different types of biases that affect decision making in a wide range of areas that include social behavior, Cognition, behavioral economy, education, management, medical care, business and finance.

Cognitive bias versus logical fallacy

People sometimes confuse cognitive biases with logical fallacies, but both are not the same. A logical fallacy comes from an error in a logical argument, while a cognitive bias is based on processing errors of thoughts that often arise from problems of memory, attention, attribution and other mental errors.

Signals

All exhibit cognitive bias. It can be easier to detect in others, but it is important to know that it is something that also affects your thinking. Some signs that could be influenced by some type of cognitive bias include:

• Just paying attention to the news confirming their opinions
• Blaming external factors when things do not come out in your own way
• Attribute the success of other people to luck, but take personal credit for their own achievements
• Assuming that everyone else shares their opinions or beliefs
• Learn a little on a subject and then assume that you know everything you have to know about it.

When you are making judgments and decisions about the world around it, you like to think that it is objective, logical and capable of assimilating and evaluating all the information that is available for you. Unfortunately, these prejudices sometimes stumble, which leads to bad decisions and bad judgments.

Types

Get more information about some of the most common types of cognitive biases that can distort your thinking.

• Actor-Observative bias: This is the tendency to attribute its own actions to external causes while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes. For example, he attributes his high level of cholesterol to genetics, while considering that others have a high level due to bad diet and lack of exercise.
• Anchor bias: This is the tendency to trust too much on the first information you learn. For example, if you learn that the average price of a car is a certain value, you will think about any amount below, it may not look for better offers. You can use this bias to establish the expectations of others by placing the first information in the table for consideration.
• Attentional bias: This is the tendency to pay attention to some things while simultaneously ignoring others. For example, by making a decision on which car to buy, you can pay attention to the appearance of the outside and the interior, but ignore the security registration and consumption of gasoline.
• Heuristic availability: This is putting greater value in the information that occurs quickly. You give greater credit to this information and tend to overestimate the probability and probability that similar things occur in the future.
• Confirmation bias: This is favoring the information that fits its existing beliefs and with the evidence discount that does not fit.
• False consensus effect: This is the tendency to overestimate how much other people agree with you.
• Functional fixation: This is the tendency to see that objects only work in a particular way. For example, if you do not have a hammer, you never consider that you can also use a large key to drive a nail on the wall. You may think that you don't need thumb thumbs because you have no cork in which to attack things, but not consider your other uses. This could be extended to the functions of people, how not to realize that a personal assistant has skills to be in leadership role.
• Halo effect: your person's general impression influences how you feel and think about them. This applies especially to physical attractiveness that influences how its other qualities qualifies.
• Erroneous information effect: This is the trend of information after the event to interfere with the memory of the original event. It is easy to have your memory influenced by what you listen to the event of others. The knowledge of this effect has led to a distrust of the information of eyewitnesses.
• Optimism bias: This bias leads him to believe that he is less likely to suffer a misfortune and that he is more likely to reach his classmates.
• Selfish bias: This is the tendency to blame external forces when bad things happen and good things happen when good things happen. For example, when you want a poker hand, it is due to your ability to read the other players and know the probabilities, while when you lose it it is because they crush you a poor hand.
• The Dunning-Kruger effect: is when people who believe they are smarter and more capable of what they really are. For example, when they cannot recognize their own incompetence.

Sometimes, multiple biases can play a role in the influence of their decisions and thought. For example, you can badly remember an event (the misinformation effect) and assume that everyone else shares that same memory of what happened (the false consensus effect).