Cog : Biases in Thinking and Decision Making

Question 1

INTRO WHAT’S COGNITIVE BIASES

Answer 1

Cognitive biases are errors in thinking that affect our ways of thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making. It occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and affects their decisions and judgments. Cognitive biases are a type of heuristic, which are mental shortcuts created from prior knowledge. Because humans are cognitive misers, we tend to create cognitive shortcuts to decrease our cognitive load. We value our cognitive resources and use those mental shortcuts to save time. One example of a cognitive bias is the anchoring bias. It is when one relies too heavily on the first piece of information when given to them.

Question 2

STUDY 1 RESEARCHER AND AIM

Answer 2

Tversky and Kahneman 74’ : Anchoring bias and its influence on math problems

Question 3

WHATS ANCHORING BIAS

Answer 3

Anchoring bias is a mental shortcut that can influence our decisions in a significant way. It describes our tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information we encounter when making a judgment. This “anchor” information serves as a reference point, and we tend to adjust our thinking around it, even if it’s not necessarily relevant or accurate.

Question 4

S1 PROCEDURE

Answer 4

High school students were split into two conditions: “ascending condition” and “descending condition”. The ascending condition was asked to estimate the value of 1 X 2 X 3 X 4 X 5 X 6 X 7 X 8 and the descending condition was asked to estimate the value of 8 X 7 X 6 X 5 X 4 X 3 X 2 X 1.

Question 5

S1 RESULTS

Answer 5

The median estimate of the ascending group was 512 and the median for the descending group was 2250. The actual value is 40320.

Question 6

S1 CONCLUSIONS

Answer 6

the anchoring effect played a role in the estimates of the participants, as the median of the ascending group was much lower than the descending group

Question 7

STUDY 2 RESEARCHER AND AIM

Answer 7

Tversky and kahneman : Framing effect

Question 8

S2 whats framing effect

Answer 8

Framing effect-when people react to choices depending on how they are presented or “framed”

Positive&negative frame- people prefer information which sounds more positive than negative, even if in fact the information is the same

Question 9

S2 AIM

Answer 9

To test the influence of positive and negative frames in decision making

Question 10

S2 PROCEDURE

Answer 10

PPTS given the question
“imagine the USA preparing for an outbreak of a disease that’s expected to kill 600 ppl, two alternative programs are proposed to combat this”

GROUP 1:
A: 200 saved
B: 1/3 chance 600 saved 2/3 nobody saved

GROUP 2:
C: 400 die
D: 1/3 nobody dies, 2/3 everyone dies

Question 11

S2 FINDINGS

Answer 11

OPT A: 72% ppts chosen
OPT B: 28%
OPT C: 22%
OPT D: 78%

Logically the question given to each group was equivalent but only difference was how it was FRAMED

Question 12

S2 CONCLUSION

Answer 12

The only diff was the FRAMING of the question, “will die” “will be saved” This shows that the framing effect took place and influenced ppts thinking and causes a bias in their decision making.