Biases and paternalism/libertarianism

Question 1

cognitive biases

Answer 1

psychological traits, selected by evolution to face other situations than logical reasoning. The automatic tendency to privilege some forms of information with respect to other

Question 2

Deficits

Answer 2

a complete and extended inability to perform a cognitive function

Question 3

Irrationality thesis

Answer 3

the view that humans have an underlying ability to reason characterized by principles that diverge from the normative principles of reason

Question 4

Modus Ponens

Answer 4

Fallacy of affirming the consequent

If Darwin wrote Hamlet, then Darwin was a great writer.

Darwin was a great writer
Therefore Darwin wrote Hamlet

Question 5

Modus tollens

Answer 5

Fallacy of denying the antecedent

If you are a ski instructor, then you have a job.

You are not a ski instructor.
You do not have a job

Question 6

Jean Piaget’s model

Answer 6

1932
maturity is obtained along with the capacity of formal operations (logic)

PROVEN FALSE:
humans can’t perform modus tollens and similar inferences naturally

Question 7

Lawrence Kohlberg

Answer 7

1958
stages of moral development based on piaget’s model

Question 8

Framing effect

Answer 8

decisions are influenced by the way in which the problem is described

contradicts condition of consistency

Question 9

Basic conjunction experiment

Answer 9

Linda (bank teller or bank teller and feminist)
probability of 2 events occurring simultaneously is less than (or equal to) one of them

Question 10

Representativeness heuristic

Answer 10

judging a situation based on how similar the prospects are to the prototypes the person holds in their mind (linda)

Question 11

Base rate neglect

Answer 11

People tend to neglect the base rate probability

Instead of taking into account the base rate or prior probability of an event, people are often distracted by less relevant information.

(engineers and lawyers)

Question 12

Anchoring heuristic

Answer 12

human tendency to accept and rely on the first piece of information received before making a decision

Question 13

Availability heuristic

Answer 13

mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a person’s mind when evaluating a specific topic

(for example, assessing risk of heart attack based on such occurrences among one’s acquaintances)

Question 14

Confirmation bias

Answer 14

selectively focusing on evidence supporting one’s beliefs

Question 15

Homophily

Answer 15

people endorsing certain beliefs tend to befriend one another

Question 16

Compatibility bias

Answer 16

positive dimensions weighted more heavily in choosing than in rejecting, and negative dimensions weighted more heavily in rejecting than choosing

(ice cream parlor, choosing flavour and deciding which ones to give up)

Question 17

Type 1 error

Answer 17

False positive
incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis
believing in something false

Question 18

Type 2 error

Answer 18

False negative
Accepting the null hypothesis that is false
Not believing in something that is correct

Question 19

Dual process theory

Answer 19

Based on system 1 and system 2
Kahneman is one of the defenders
System 1 is automatic and fast
system 2 is more nuanced and slow

Question 20

Three process models

Answer 20

Reflective, algorithmic, and autonomous mind
–> reflective and algorithmic type 2

Hybrid model: implicit knowledge, explicit knowledge retrieval, processing (takes both into account)

Question 21

Fearing dead risk

Answer 21

cognitive bias that makes people focus on consequences of an event (while neglecting its likelihood)

Question 22

Debiasing approaches

Answer 22

-Education and training (cognitive)
-Incentives (reward; emotional)
-Nudging (situational, libertarian paternalism)

Question 23

SIC syndrome

Answer 23

The concept that doctors act in Self-Defense, Innumeracy and Conflicts of interest

Question 24

Science Comprehension Thesis (SCT)

Answer 24

Public conflict arises from a lack of understanding or reasoning capacity.
Identifies defects in the public’s knowledge and reasoning capacities

Question 25

Identity-protective Cognition Thesis (ICT)

Answer 25

Cultural and political conflicts shape individual’s interpretation of evidence to align with group identities

i.e. the tendency of individuals to unconsciously dismiss evidence that does not reflect the beliefs that predominate in their group

Question 26

Nudging

Answer 26

proposed by Thaler and Sunstein, advocates designing choice environments (or nudges) that guide individuals toward better decisions without limiting freedom

Question 27

Gerd Gigrenzer article

Answer 27

against nudging, against assumptions
1. people lack rationality
2. people are hardly educatable
3. choice architects are assumed to be benevolent philosopher-kings while they may pursue conflicting interests