Cognitive Biases Flashcards
What is anchoring?
cognitive bias to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered
What is the “Availability heuristic”?
tendency to overestimate the likelihood of events with greater “availability” in memory, which can be influenced by how recent the memories are or how unusual or emotionally charged they may be
Define “Availability cascade”
A self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse (or “repeat something long enough and it will become true”)
Define “Backfire effect”
When people react to disconfirming evidence by strengthening their beliefs
Define “Base rate fallacy” or “base rate neglect”
tendency to ignore base rate information (generic, general information) and focus on specific information (information only pertaining to a certain case)
Define Confirmation bias
tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions
Define Conjunction fallacy
tendency to assume that specific conditions are more probable than general one
Define Conservatism (Bayesian)
tendency to insufficiently revise one’s belief when presented with new evidence
Define Curse of knowledge
When better-informed people find it extremely difficult to think about problems from the perspective of lesser-informed people
Define Decoy effect
Preferences for either option A or B changes in favor of option B when option C is presented, which is similar to option B but in no way better.
Define Endowment effect
people often demand much more to give up an object than they would be willing to pay to acquire it
Define Barnum effect
E.g., horoscopes: individuals give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general
Define Framing effect
Drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how or by whom that information is presented
Define Gambler’s fallacy
For example, “I’ve flipped heads with this coin five times consecutively, so the chance of tails coming out on the sixth flip is much greater than heads.”
Define Hindsight bias
“I-knew-it-all-along” effect
Define Hyperbolic discounting
tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs, where the tendency increases the closer to the present both payoffs are
Define Identifiable victim effect
tendency to respond more strongly to a single identified person at risk than to a large group of people at risk
Define Loss aversion
“the disutility of giving up an object is greater than the utility associated with acquiring it” – also SUNK COST EFFECT
Define Normalcy bias
The refusal to plan for, or react to, a disaster which has never happened before.
Define Outcome bias
tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made
Define Planning Fallacy
tendency to underestimate task-completion times
Define Reactive Devaluation
Devaluing proposals only because they are purportedly originated with an adversary
Define Rhyme as Reason
Rhyming statements are perceived as more truthful (Glove don’t fit…)
Define Risk compensation
tendency to take greater risks when perceived safety increases.
Define Subadditivity effect
tendency to judge probability of the whole to be less than the probabilities of the parts
Define Survivorship Bias
Concentrating on the people or things that “survived” some process and inadvertently overlooking those that didn’t because of their lack of visibility.
Define Halo Effect
tendency for a person’s positive or negative traits to “spill over” from one personality area to another in others’ perceptions of them
Define Consistency Bias
Incorrectly remembering one’s past attitudes and behaviour as resembling present attitudes and behaviour.
