Cognitive Biases Flashcards
1
Q
Intuition
A
- Confidence in a decision, despite not knowing why
- The condition that the intuition would work well under is likely not the condition we are facing
2
Q
Miswanting
A
- Being mistaken for what we want
- Once we get what we think we want, the thing eventually loses its gloss
3
Q
Miswanting: Impact bias
A
- Overestimating the positive impact things we want will have on us
- Forgetting hedonic adaptation (gloss loss) has happened before / poor affective forecasting (there is no “remember what happened last time?”)
4
Q
Miswanting: Immune neglect
A
- Overestimating the negative impact things will have on our happiness e.g. job application rejection
- Happiness decrease is far less than expected because we quickly rationalise/strategise to manage the losses
5
Q
Loss aversion
A
- The disvalue that comes from a loss is far more important to us than the value that comes from a gain
- Framing effect: we will act differently depending on whether the choice is framed by gain or loss (e.g. 100/300 people saved vs 200/300 people killed)
6
Q
Memory bias
A
- Experienced vs remembered happiness
- Misremembering the impact of an event (if the last experience of an event is negative, the person’s memory is left on a negative note, rather any prior positive experience).
7
Q
Cognitive biases
A
- Are systematic issues that unwarrantedly influence our decision making
- CBs mean that we are not actually necessarily in the best position to determine what is best for us
8
Q
Dictative economic theory
A
- The concept of the perfectly rational person
- This is illogical though, as humans constantly repeat mistakes and self-sabotage (hedonic adaptation - gloss loss)
9
Q
Unconscious behaviour
A
- Behaviour that happens on its own without attention or awareness
- E.g. COVID face-touching
10
Q
Status quo bias
A
Choosing the default option
11
Q
The sunk cost fallacy
A
Over-eating to ‘get their money’s worth’
12
Q
Durability bias
A
Mis-predicting how long an event will make our happiness last
