Cognitive Biases - Exam #1 Flashcards
Confirmation bias
A tendency to welcome evidence that supports our beliefs while downplaying evidence that opposes it.
Selective attention bias
An unconscious tendency to notice evidence that supports one’s belief system, while not noticing evidence that contradicts it.
Belief Bias
A tendency to rate the logical strength of an argument on the basis of whether we agree with the conclusion.
Bandwagon bias
An unconscious tendency to adopt beliefs because many others hold them, or because we belong to a group where many others hold a certain belief.
Ethnocentrism
An irrational belief in the innate superiority of one’s own society, culture, or ethnic group. People with this bias see their group through the best light, while seeing other groups in the worst light.
Stereotype
An oversimplified generalization about the members of a group, usually inaccurate and unflattering and usually based on an inadequate review of all the evidence.
Egocentrism
Being so exceptionally self-absorbed as to fail to see the full picture, which includes the existence intrinsic value of other people.
Self-interest
When someone believes something or does something simply because it benefits them in some way and thus advances our own interest, with out considering the evidence, effects on others, or total situation.
Availability bias
Leads people to base a conclusion on evidence not because it is good evidence but simply because it is easily available, when broader research would probably lead to a different conclusion.
First-Person bias
When we evaluate the good of others using the framework we use in evaluating our own good.
False Consensus Bias
An unconscious tendency to think that our own beliefs, attitudes, and those of our friends, are representative of the larger society, without checking to see if the correspondence is real.
Story-fitting
The creation of a story that explains why certain things happen to us, and then reading out entire life through the lens of that story
Expectation bias
We strongly expect something to happen, and then interpret the outcome to fit our expectation. This can color experiences or create them entirely.
Short-term thinking
Thinking only about the short-term, rather than the long term.
Externalize it
The tendency to externalize a problem - that is, to look for an external cause for a problem that may be internal.
