Egocentric Biases

Question 1

Egocentric bias

Answer 1

Egocentric bias is the tendency to rely too heavily on one’s own perspective and/or have a higher opinion of oneself than reality. It appears to be the result of the psychological need to satisfy one’s ego and to be advantageous for memory consolidation. Research[by whom?] has shown[citation needed][weasel words] that experiences, ideas, and beliefs are more easily recalled when they match one’s own, causing an egocentric outlook. Michael Ross and Fiore Sicoly first identified this cognitive bias in their 1979 paper, “Egocentric biases in availability and attribution”. Egocentric bias is referred to by most psychologists as a general umbrella term under which other related phenomena fall.

Question 2

Forer effect or Barnum effect

Answer 2

The observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, graphology, and some types of personality tests.

Question 3

Illusion of control

Answer 3

The tendency to overestimate one’s degree of influence over other external events.

Question 4

Illusion of validity

Answer 4

Overestimating the accurracy of one’s judgments, especially when available information is consistent or inter-correlated.

Question 5

Overconfidence effect

Answer 5

Excessive confidence in one’s own answers to questions. For example, for certain types of questions, answers that people rate as “99% certain” turn out to be wrong 40% of the time.

Question 6

Planning fallacy

Answer 6

The tendency to underestimate one’s own task-completion times.

Question 7

Restraint bias

Answer 7

The tendency to overestimate one’s ability to show restraint in the face of temptation.