Social

Question 1

Actor-observer bias

Answer 1

The tendency for explanations of other individuals’ behaviors to overemphasize the influence of their personality and underemphasize the influence of their situation, and for explanations of one’s own behaviors to do the opposite (that is, to overemphasize the influence of our situation and underemphasize the influence of our own personality).

Question 2

Authority bias

Answer 2

The tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure (unrelated to its content) and be more influenced by that opinion.

Question 3

Availability cascade

Answer 3

A self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse (or “repeat something long enough and it will become true”).

Question 4

Bandwagon effect

Answer 4

The tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same.

Question 5

Ben Franklin effect

Answer 5

A person who has performed a favor for someone is more likely to do another favor for that person than they would be if they had received a favor from that person.

Question 6

Bias blind spot

Answer 6

The tendency to see oneself as less biased than other people, or to be able to identify more cognitive biases in others than in oneself

Question 7

Cheerleader effect

Answer 7

The tendency for people to appear more attractive in a group than in isolation.

Question 8

Courtesy bias

Answer 8

The tendency to give an opinion that is more socially correct than one’s true opinion, so as to avoid offending anyone.

Question 9

Defensive attribution hypothesis

Answer 9

Attributing more blame to a harm-doer as the outcome becomes more severe or as personal or situational similarity to the victim increases.

Question 10

Defensive othering effect

Answer 10

Occurs when perceived similarities with the stigmatized group trigger a protective behavior of distancing (othering) self (or someone else) from “others” as a means to avoid a certain negative outcome associated with “others.”

Question 11

Egocentric bias

Answer 11

Occurs when people claim more responsibility for themselves for the results of a joint action than an outside observer would credit them with.

Question 12

Extrinsic incentives bias

Answer 12

An exception to the fundamental attribution error, when people view others as having (situational) extrinsic motivations and (dispositional) intrinsic motivations for oneself

Question 13

False consensus effect

Answer 13

The tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which others agree with them.

Question 14

False uniqueness bias

Answer 14

The tendency of people to see their projects and themselves as more singular than they actually are.

Question 15

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 15

The tendency for people to over-emphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior

Question 16

Group attribution error

Answer 16

The biased belief that the characteristics of an individual group member are reflective of the group as a whole or the tendency to assume that group decision outcomes reflect the preferences of group members, even when information is available that clearly suggests otherwise.

Question 17

Groupthink

Answer 17

The psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

Question 18

Halo effect

Answer 18

The tendency for a person’s positive or negative traits to “spill over” from one personality area to another in others’ perceptions of them

Question 19

Hostile attribution bias

Answer 19

The “hostile attribution bias” is the tendency to interpret others’ behaviors as having hostile intent, even when the behavior is ambiguous or benign.

Question 20

Illusion of asymmetric insight

Answer 20

People perceive their knowledge of their peers to surpass their peers’ knowledge of them.

Question 21

Illusion of transparency

Answer 21

The tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which their personal mental state is known by others, and to overestimate how well they understand others’ personal mental states.

Question 22

Illusory superiority

Answer 22

Overestimating one’s desirable qualities, and underestimating undesirable qualities, relative to other people.

Question 23

Ingroup bias

Answer 23

The tendency for people to give preferential treatment to others they perceive to be members of their own groups.

Question 24

Intentionality bias

Answer 24

Tendency to judge human action to be intentional rather than accidental.

Question 25

Just-world hypothesis

Answer 25

The tendency for people to want to believe that the world is fundamentally just, causing them to rationalize an otherwise inexplicable injustice as deserved by the victim(s).

Question 26

Moral luck

Answer 26

The tendency for people to ascribe greater or lesser moral standing based on the outcome of an event.

Question 27

Naïve cynicism

Answer 27

Expecting more egocentric bias in others than in oneself.

Question 28

Naïve realism

Answer 28

The belief that we see reality as it really is – objectively and without bias; that the facts are plain for all to see; that rational people will agree with us; and that those who don’t are either uninformed, lazy, irrational, or biased.

Question 29

Not invented here

Answer 29

Aversion to contact with or use of products, research, standards, or knowledge developed outside a group.

Question 30

Outgroup homogeneity bias

Answer 30

Individuals see members of their own group as being relatively more varied than members of other groups.

Question 31

Puritanical bias

Answer 31

Refers to the tendency to attribute cause of an undesirable outcome or wrongdoing by an individual to a moral deficiency or lack of self-control rather than taking into account the impact of broader societal determinants

Question 32

Pygmalion effect

Answer 32

The phenomenon whereby others’ expectations of a target person affect the target person’s performance.

Question 33

Reactance

Answer 33

The urge to do the opposite of what someone wants you to do out of a need to resist a perceived attempt to constrain your freedom of choice

Question 34

Reactive devaluation

Answer 34

Devaluing proposals only because they purportedly originated with an adversary.

Question 35

Self-serving bias

Answer 35

The tendency to claim more responsibility for successes than failures. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to their interests.

Question 36

Sexual over perception bias / Sexual under perception bias

Answer 36

The tendency to over-/underestimate sexual interest of another person in oneself.

Question 37

Social comparison bias

Answer 37

The tendency, when making decisions, to favour potential candidates who don’t compete with one’s own particular strengths.

Question 38

Social cryptomnesia

Answer 38

A failure by people and society in general to remember the origin of a change, in which people know that a change has occurred in society, but forget how this change occurred; that is, the steps that were taken to bring this change about, and who took these steps. This has led to reduced social credit towards the minorities who made major sacrifices that led to the change in societal values.

Question 39

Social desirability bias

Answer 39

The tendency to over-report socially desirable characteristics or behaviours in oneself and under-report socially undesirable characteristics or behaviours.

Question 40

Shared information bias

Answer 40

known as the tendency for group members to spend more time and energy discussing information that all members are already familiar with (i.e., shared information), and less time and energy discussing information that only some members are aware of (i.e., unshared information)

Question 41

Trait ascription bias

Answer 41

The tendency for people to view themselves as relatively variable in terms of personality, behavior, and mood while viewing others as much more predictable.

Question 42

Third-person effect

Answer 42

A tendency to believe that mass-communicated media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves.

Question 43

Ultimate attribution error

Answer 43

Similar to the fundamental attribution error, in this error a person is likely to make an internal attribution to an entire group instead of the individuals within the group.

Question 44

Worse-than-average effect

Answer 44

A tendency to believe ourselves to be worse than others at tasks which are difficult.