Cognitive Biases

Question 1

Bandwagon Effect

Answer 1

Tendency to do or believe things because many other people do

Question 2

Bias Blind Spot

Answer 2

Tendency not to compensate for one’s own cognitive biases

Even when told you are biased, you will underestimate the effects

Question 3

Choice-supportive Bias

Answer 3

Tendency to retroactively ascribe positive attributes to an option one has selected

Question 4

Confirmation Bias

Answer 4

Tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions

Question 5

Congruence Bias

Answer 5

Tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing

Question 6

Contrast effect

Answer 6

Enhancement or diminishment of a weight or other measurement when compared with recently observed contrasting object

You are judged more physically attractive fi you are standing next to your ugly friend

Question 7

Deformation professionnelle

Answer 7

tendency to look at things according to the conventions of one’s own profession, forgetting any broader point of view

Professional training distorts your worldview

“When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

Question 8

Disconfirmation Bias

Answer 8

Tendency for people to extend greater critical scrutiny to information which contradicts their prior beliefs

Same as confirmation bias in reverse

Question 9

Endowment effect

Answer 9

Tendency for people to value something more as soon as they own it

Inconsistent with standard economic theory willingness to pay (WTP) should = willingess to accept (WTA)

Question 10

Focusing Effect

Answer 10

Placing too much importance on one aspect of an event

AKA anchoring effect

Using odometer readings to value a used car over maintenance records

Question 11

Hyperbolic discounting

Answer 11

People generally prefer smaller, sooner payoffs to larger, later payoffs

Question 12

Illusion of control

Answer 12

The tendency for human beings to believe that can control at least influence outcomes which they clearly cannot

Question 13

Impact bias

Answer 13

Tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states

Applies to both positive and negative emotions

Question 14

Information bias

Answer 14

tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action

fallacy that if we can get more information we can make better decisions

information that is not worth knowing is not worth acquiring

Question 15

Loss aversion

Answer 15

Tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains

People generally risk averse

Pain of losing $100 is greater than the pleasure of winning $100

Question 16

Neglect of Probability

Answer 16

Tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty

Seat belt example

Question 17

Mere exposure effect

Answer 17

Tendency for people to express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them

Question 18

Omission bias

Answer 18

Tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral, then equally harmful omissions (inactions)

Question 19

Outcome bias

Answer 19

Tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made

Question 20

Planning fallacy

Answer 20

Tendency to underestimate task-completion times

Question 21

Pseudocertainty effect

Answer 21

Tendency to make risk-averse choices if the expected outcome is positive

but make risk-seeking choices to avoid negative outcomes

Question 22

Selective perception

Answer 22

Tendency for expectations to affect perception

If you believe, make it true

Similar to placebo effect

Question 23

Status quo bias

Answer 23

Tendency for people to like thing to stay relatively the same

Question 24

Von Restorff effect

Answer 24

Tendency for an item that “stands out like a sore thumb” to be more likely to be remembered than other items

Question 25

Zero-risk bias

Answer 25

Preference for reducing a small risk to zero over a greater reduction in a larger risk

Prefer small benefits that are certain to large ones that are uncertain