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Cognitive biases: Difference between revisions
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#'''Scarcity effect''' - makes people more likely to buy something when they think it’s about to run out or be taken away from them. | #'''Scarcity effect''' - makes people more likely to buy something when they think it’s about to run out or be taken away from them. | ||
#'''Thought paradoxes''' - [[Allais' Paradox]]. | #'''Thought paradoxes''' - [[Allais' Paradox]]. | ||
Below is a list of common psychological fallacies: | |||
== Sunk Cost == | |||
A sunk cost fallacy is when someone continues doing something because of the effort they already put in it, regardless of whether the additional costs outweigh the potential benefits. "Sunk cost" is an economic term for any past expenses that can no longer be recovered. | |||
For example: Imagine that after watching the first six episodes of a TV show, you decide the show isn't for you. Those six episodes are your "sunk cost." A sunk cost fallacy would be deciding to finish watching anyway because you've already invested roughly six hours of your life in it. | |||
== Appeal to Pity == | |||
An appeal to pity relies on provoking your emotions to win an argument rather than factual evidence. Appealing to pity attempts to pull on an audience's heartstrings, distract them, and support their point of view. | |||
Someone accused of a crime using a cane or walker to appear more feeble in front of a jury is one example of appeal to pity. The appearance of disability isn't an argument on the merits of the case, but it's intended to sway the jury's opinion anyway. | |||
== Bandwagon Fallacy == | |||
The bandwagon fallacy assumes something is true (or right or good) because others agree with it. In other words, the fallacy argues that if everyone thinks a certain way, then you should, too. | |||
One problem with this kind of reasoning is that the broad acceptance of a claim or action doesn't mean that it's factually justified. People can be mistaken, confused, deceived, or even willfully irrational in their opinions, so using them to make an argument is flawed. | |||
== The Diderot Effect == | |||
[[File:Diderot.jpg|thumb|More stuff = different identity = more stuff...]] | |||
Coined after the French philosopher Denis Diderot’s remarkably titled essay “Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown”. | |||
The gist of the effect is that we generally surround ourselves with objects that fit our current sense of identity. If we get something that doesn’t fit that identity we may find ourselves replacing the rest to match the new identity. | |||
Poor Diderot was given a fancy new dressing gown and ended up replacing most of his possessions and ultimately living in poverty, to paraphrase a little. | |||
== The singularity effect == | |||
[[File:Singularity effect.jpg|alt=One has a greater value than two.|thumb|One has a greater value than two.]] | |||
Related to [[psychic numbing]], the singularity effect is the name to how we care disproportionately about an individual as compared to a group. Think, Saving Private Ryan, where an enormous effort is launched to save a single soldier in the second world war. It turns out that even as you add a second person there’s some justification for something known as compassion fade. The addition of more people doesn’t increase our willingness to help proportionally — our compassion fades as more people are involved. | |||
== Personal Bias Suppression == | == Personal Bias Suppression == | ||