Cognitive bias

Question 1

What is bias?

Answer 1

Prejudiced or unsupported judgments in favor of or against one thing, person or group as compared to another, in a way that is considered unfair

Question 2

What are heuristics?

Answer 2

Approximate strategies or ‘rules of thumb’ for decision making and problem solving that do not guarantee a correct solution but that typically yield a reasonable solution or bring one closer to hand
(These are useful, but sometimes they lead to severe and systematic errors)

Question 3

What are the three initial heuristics? (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973)

Answer 3

1) Representativeness
2) Availability
3) Anchoring an adjusting

Question 4

What is representativeness? (heuristic)

Answer 4

When people make decisions based on categories, people overestimate the effect of similarities in predicting an event
e.g. assuming all French people like eating cheese

Question 5

What is availability? (heuristic)

Answer 5

The ease at which an idea can be recalled - if something is easier to recall, this will be the immediate biased judgment
e.g. what’s a pirate’s favourite letter?

Question 6

What is anchoring and adjusting? (heuristic)

Answer 6

When individuals depend too heavily on some initial information (i.e. an anchor) in making decisions
e.g. thinking you’re getting a better deal because something is reduced from £30 to £15 when it was actually always £15

Question 7

What are schemas?

Answer 7

Mental frameworks that bundle experience-based knowledge together in an organised way
i.e. categories

Question 8

How do schemas cause bias?

Answer 8

Based on schemas, we automatically assign individuals to salient and accessible social categories
Our brain automatically considers information that we’ve come to associate with that group

Question 9

What is an attitude and what is a stereotype?

Answer 9

Attitude - an association between a category and an evaluative valence
Stereotype - a specific association between a category and a particular trait
- Can be implicit or explicit
- Can be developed through direct interaction or vicarious contact

Question 10

What is fundamental attribution error?

Answer 10

The tendency for attributors to underestimate the impact of situational factors and to overestimate the role of dispositional factors in controlling behaviour
e.g. being late for someone - they think you’re lazy, you think your life is too busy

Question 11

What is intergroup bias?

Answer 11

Favouring the in-group and discriminating against the out-group

Question 12

What is social identity?

Answer 12

An individual’s self-concept derived from perceived membership in relevant social groups

Question 13

What is the halo effect?

Answer 13

The tendency to form an impression created about one aspect of an individual to influence opinions on other areas

Question 14

What is the gambler’s fallacy?

Answer 14

Belief that past results influence future random events when in reality it is the same chance every time

Question 15

What is the hot hand fallacy?

Answer 15

A mistaken belief that a person who experiences success has a greater chance of success in further attempts

Question 16

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 16

The tendency to seek, interpret, and create information that verifies existing beliefs

Question 17

What is the false-uniqueness effect?

Answer 17

The tendency to view one’s own qualities, traits and personal attributes as unique

Question 18

What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?

Answer 18

People are very inclined to view themselves as more competent than they are, those with the least ability are most likely to overrate their skills as they lack the expertise needed to realise how badly they’re doing

Question 19

What is the implicit association test? (IAT)

Answer 19

• A reaction time measure (does not actually measure bias)
• Quicker sorting = quicker association
• Looks at ageism, sexism, racism, ableism

Question 20

What are criticisms of the implicit association test? (IAT)

Answer 20

• Ambiguous ‘State vs Trait’ - stereotypes may not be permanent
• Can be strongly affected by the environment
• Low test-retest reliability
• Could be measuring cultural awareness not bias
• Individuals could possibly control their implicit responses?
• Could be biased but have it not affect your behaviour at all

Question 21

Is bias present in organisations and in what way?

Answer 21

• Very poor diversity in organisations - low representation of women and ethnic minorities
• Women - make less money when heavier
• Men - make more money when taller
• Job applicants with African American sounding names got fewer callbacks
• Compared to white British applicants, people of Pakistani heritage have to submit 70% more applications, Nigerian and South Asian - 80% more, Middle Eastern and North African - 90% more

Question 22

How might we reduce bias in organisations?

Answer 22

Design procedures and structures to minimise how often biases can affect decision making

Question 23

How many bits per second does the brain receive and how many do we process consciously?

Answer 23

Brain receives 11 million bits/sec and we process 40 consciously

Question 24

What are System 1 and System 2 of processing? (Bias)

Answer 24

System 1 = Fast, unconscious, automatic, everyday decisions, error prone
System 2 = Slow, conscious, effortful, complex decisions, reliable

Question 25

How can bias be shown in neuropsychology?

Answer 25

The amygdala is one of the oldest parts of the brain - controls emotion
Using fMRI, we can see that it reacts differently when seeing demographically different people - this is not rationale or conscious