SAFMEDS Key terms

Question 1

Deliberate, rule-based system of thinking that allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it

Answer 1

System 2 Thinking

Question 2

Set of mental processes that occur quickly & effortlessly, & renders quick, holistic judgments that are typically based on associative connections

Answer 2

System 1 Thinking

Question 3

Tendency to think that 2 events that “go together” in time, distance or similarity of features are causally linked

Answer 3

Magical Thinking

Question 4

Mistaken belief that spending time, money or energy on an endeavor is justified by time, money or energy already invested in it

Answer 4

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Question 5

Tendency to draw firm conclusions from a single instance or small sample

Answer 5

Over-Inference

Question 6

Mistaken belief that the combination of two events is more probable than either of its constituent elements

Answer 6

Conjunction Fallacy

Question 6

Mistakenly attributing instances of regression to the mean for a causal relationship

Answer 6

Regression Fallacy

Question 7

Belief that if a particular outcome has not occurred in a while, then it is due to occur

Answer 7

Gambler’s Fallacy

Question 8

Mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to the prototypical case

Answer 8

Representativeness Heuristic

Question 9

Appeal to popularity or arguing that many people believing something is evidence of its accuracy

Answer 9

Bandwagon Fallacy

Question 10

Assuming that if something has not been proven false, then it must be true (or vice versa)

Answer 10

Fallacy of Ignorance

Question 11

Attacking the person making an argument rather than the argument itself

Answer 11

Ad Hominem

Question 12

Mistaken belief or argument that assumes if something is natural, it is good

Answer 12

Naturalistic Fallacy

Question 13

Mistaken belief or argument that gains realized by one entity must come at the cost of another

Answer 13

Zero Sum (or Fixed Pie) Fallacy

Question 14

Tendency to believe that that one perceives objects & events as they actually are, rather than as they appear in light of one’s particular vantage point, prior beliefs, & expectations

Answer 14

Naive Realism

Question 14

Tendency to react to a choice in different ways depending on how it is presented (e.g., gains versus losses)

Answer 14

Framing Effect

Question 14

A conclusion that does “not logically follow” from the previous argument, statement, or evidence

Answer 14

Non Sequitur

Question 15

Tendency to attribute successes & positive outcomes to our doing, & negative events or outcomes to other people or contextual factors outside ourselves

Answer 15

Self-serving Bias

Question 16

Tendency to depend too heavily on an initial piece of information when making decisions

Answer 16

Anchoring Bias

Question 17

Tendency to exaggerate the likelihood that one would have predicted the outcome in advance

Answer 17

Hindsight Bias

Question 18

Tendency to make a judgement about something based on how easily an example comes to mind

Answer 18

Availability Heuristic

Question 19

Natural selection favored biases toward the less costly error; although error rates are increased, net costs are reduced

Answer 19

Error Management Biases

Question 20

Biases or errors that were favored by natural selection in ancestral environments, but are no longer advantageous in the current environment

Answer 20

Artifacts

Question 21

Tendency to interpret ambiguous evidence in a manner that supports a desired conclusion

Answer 21

Assimilation Bias

Question 22

Tendency to search for, interpret, favor, & recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or hypotheses

Answer 22

Confirmation Bias

Question 23

A mistaken belief resulting from invalid or faulty reasoning

Answer 23

Fallacy

Question 24

A systematic error in thinking or reasoning that affects judgment & decision-making

Answer 24

Cognitive Bias

Question 25

A mental shortcut that allows people to solve problems & make judgments quickly & efficiently

Answer 25

Heuristic

Question 26

False or mistaken beliefs that are clearly out of touch with reality

Answer 26

Anomalous Beliefs

Question 27

Ideas or mental content that we take to be true or accurate

Answer 27

Beliefs

Question 28

Scientific rule that asserts when two theories are equally plausible and supported by the available scientific data, choose the simpler of the two

Answer 28

Occam’s Razor

Question 29

Arguing that a claim is true simply because a valid authority or expert on the issue said it was true

Answer 29

Appeal to Authority

Question 30

Arguing that a proposition is true because belief in it has good consequences, or that it is false because belief in it has bad consequences

Answer 30

Appeal to Consequences

Question 31

Applying standards, principles, and/or rules to other people or circumstances, while making oneself or certain circumstances exempt from the same critical criteria, without providing adequate justification

Answer 31

Special Pleading

Question 32

Error in reasoning that occurs when a premise of an argument depends on the conclusion being true

Answer 32

Circular Reasoning (Begging the Question)

Question 33

The error of only counting or including data that supports one position or conclusion while ignoring the data that doesn’t support it or even flat-out refutes it.

Answer 33

Observational Selection

Question 34

Incorrectly asserting that a choice must be made from two extremes when many alternative possibilities exist

Answer 34

False Dichotomy

Question 35

A false positive or detecting a pattern where none exists

Answer 35

Type 1 Error

Question 36

A false negative or failing to detect a pattern where one exists

Answer 36

Type 2 Error

Question 37

Drawing a conclusion from too little data

Answer 37

Hasty Generalization

Question 38

Comparing two things that do not share a fundamental similarity

Answer 38

Faulty Analogy

Question 39

Mistakenly assuming that a relatively small first step is going to lead to a chain of events that culminates in some significant effect

Answer 39

Slippery Slope Fallacy

Question 40

Asserting that some fact is true for one person but not for another

Answer 40

Relativist Fallacy

Question 41

Introducing an irrelevant topic into an argument to distract the opponent or audience from the actual topic of discussion

Answer 41

Red Herring

Question 42

Attempt to manipulate the recipient’s emotions in order to win an argument, especially in the absence of factual evidence

Answer 42

Appeal to Emotion

Question 43

Refuting an argument that is different from the one being made without acknowledging the distinction

Answer 43

Strawman Fallacy

Question 44

Use of language in a deliberate way to influence thought on superficial grounds

Answer 44

Weasel Words

Question 45

Priming the recipient to distrust the presenter’s argument in advance

Answer 45

Poisoning the Well

Question 46

Claiming an argument is invalid because the person making an argument is biased or predisposed to take a particular stance

Answer 46

Ad hominem Circumstantial

Question 47

Claiming an argument is flawed by pointing out that the one making the argument is not acting consistently with the claims of the argument

Answer 47

Ad hominem tu quoque