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Cognitive biases: Difference between revisions

Cognitive biases: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Cognitive biases.jpg|alt=Cognitive biases|Cognitive biases|thumb]]'''A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them. They are predictable patterns of thought and behaviour leading to incorrect conclusions.'''
#REDIRECT [[https://burnzero.com/Cognitive Biases]]<div class="res-img">[[File:Bias Hierarchy2.png|alt=Bias Hierarchy|center]]</div>


Cognitive biases persist in society as they are self-reinforcing by a combination of the [[Dunning Kruger effect]] and the [[Confirmation Bias]]. Below is a list of the most prevalent cognitive biases in society ranked on their importance:


# [[Optimism bias|'''Optimism bias''']] - a computer cannot tell you whether it will rain or not, only the probability of it occurring.
 
'''Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking that occur in all people. They occur when processing and interpreting information from the world around us. In essence, they are predictable patterns of thought and behaviour that lead to incorrect conclusions.'''
 
The most popular bias in society is the Lucid Self Bias, pictured at the top of this page. The Lucid Self Bias is the tendency for one's self to think that their thought patterns are not subject to bias and should be the starting point of self analysis. This bias is constantly reinforced by a combination of the [[Dunning Kruger effect]] and the [[Confirmation Bias]]. After this these primary biases there are a wide range of other biases which have been documented, which can be loosely categorised into affecting memory, social, learning, belief, money and politics:
 
# '''[[Self-serving bias|Self-serving Bias]]''' - the tendency people have to seek out information and use it in ways that advance their self-interest.
#[[Fundamental attribution error|'''Fundamental attribution error''']] - an individual's tendency to attribute another's actions to their character or personality, while attributing their behavior to external situational factors outside of their control.
#[[Optimism bias|'''Optimism Bias''']] - a computer cannot tell you whether it will rain or not, only the probability of it occurring.
#[[Additive Bias|'''Additive Bias''']] - we may be biased toward adding more things—more resources, more rules, more habits and responsibilities—rather than the opposite.
#[[Additive Bias|'''Additive Bias''']] - we may be biased toward adding more things—more resources, more rules, more habits and responsibilities—rather than the opposite.
#[[Rosy Retrospection Bias|'''Rosy Retrospection Bias''']] - people overestimate the good aspects of the past.
#'''[[Sunk Cost Fallacy]]''' - whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.
#[[The Diderot Effect|'''The Diderot Effect''']] - perhaps linked to the confirmation bias where we surround ourselves with information the  confirms preexisting beliefs. The Diderot effect takes this into the physical realm, we generally surround ourselves with objects that fit our current sense of identity.
#'''[[The singularity effect|The Singularity Effect]]''' - we care disproportionately about an individual as compared to a group.
#'''Availability Heuristic'''<ref>https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow</ref> - people tend to use the ease with which they can think of examples when making decisions.
#'''Availability Heuristic'''<ref>https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow</ref> - people tend to use the ease with which they can think of examples when making decisions.
#'''Anchoring Effect''' - the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the “anchor”) when making decisions.
#'''Anchoring Effect''' - the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the “anchor”) when making decisions.
#'''Hindsight Bias''' - the tendency to think that an event was more obvious or predictable than it really was.
#'''Hindsight Bias''' - the tendency to think that an event was more obvious or predictable than it really was.
#'''[[Sunk Cost Fallacy]]''' - whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.
#'''Halo Effect''' - people assume a person or thing is good in every way because of one good characteristic.
#'''Halo Effect''' - people assume a person or thing is good in every way because of one good characteristic.
#'''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]].
#'''Appeal to Pity''' - 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.
Below is a list of common psychological fallacies:
#'''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.
 
#
== 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 ==
Analyzing one's beliefs, preferences, or associations while experiencing personal bias suppression can lead to new perspectives that would take years of in depth psychoanalysis. The suppression of this innate tendency often induces the realization that certain aspects of a person's personality, world view and culture are not reflective of objective truths about reality, but are in fact subjective or even delusional opinions.<ref>Horváth, Lajos; Szummer, Csaba; Szabo, Attila (2017). "Weak phantasy and visionary phantasy: the phenomenological significance of altered states of consciousness". ''Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences''. '''17''' (1): 117–129. doi:10.1007/s11097-016-9497-4. ISSN 1568-7759.</ref> This realization often leads to or accompanies deep states of insight and critical introspection which can create significant alterations in a person's perspective that last anywhere from days, weeks, months, or even years after the experience itself. Personal bias suppression is one of the hallmark effects of using [[psychedelics]].
Analyzing one's beliefs, preferences, or associations while experiencing personal bias suppression can lead to new perspectives that would take years of in depth psychoanalysis. The suppression of this innate tendency often induces the realization that certain aspects of a person's personality, world view and culture are not reflective of objective truths about reality, but are in fact subjective or even delusional opinions.<ref>Horváth, Lajos; Szummer, Csaba; Szabo, Attila (2017). "Weak phantasy and visionary phantasy: the phenomenological significance of altered states of consciousness". ''Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences''. '''17''' (1): 117–129. doi:10.1007/s11097-016-9497-4. ISSN 1568-7759.</ref> This realization often leads to or accompanies deep states of insight and critical introspection which can create significant alterations in a person's perspective that last anywhere from days, weeks, months, or even years after the experience itself. Personal bias suppression is one of the hallmark effects of using [[psychedelics]].
== Bias Perception Advantage ==
Once you can see bias in yourself you will start to see bias in others. Artificial intelligence is doing this already by taking advantage of human heuristics to convince us that AI constructed language is in fact coming from a human. This is because human judgments of AI-generated language are handicapped by intuitive but flawed heuristics such as associating first-person pronouns, authentic words, or family topics with humanity. The latest GPT language algorithms know this and are taking advantage of this fact.<ref>AI-Mediated Communication: How the Perception that Profile Text was Written by AI Affects Trustworthiness. CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsMay 2019 Paper No.: 239Pages 1–13https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300469</ref>


'''References'''
'''References'''

Latest revision as of 21:06, 14 December 2022

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Bias Hierarchy


Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking that occur in all people. They occur when processing and interpreting information from the world around us. In essence, they are predictable patterns of thought and behaviour that lead to incorrect conclusions.

The most popular bias in society is the Lucid Self Bias, pictured at the top of this page. The Lucid Self Bias is the tendency for one's self to think that their thought patterns are not subject to bias and should be the starting point of self analysis. This bias is constantly reinforced by a combination of the Dunning Kruger effect and the Confirmation Bias. After this these primary biases there are a wide range of other biases which have been documented, which can be loosely categorised into affecting memory, social, learning, belief, money and politics:

  1. Self-serving Bias - the tendency people have to seek out information and use it in ways that advance their self-interest.
  2. Fundamental attribution error - an individual's tendency to attribute another's actions to their character or personality, while attributing their behavior to external situational factors outside of their control.
  3. Optimism Bias - a computer cannot tell you whether it will rain or not, only the probability of it occurring.
  4. Additive Bias - we may be biased toward adding more things—more resources, more rules, more habits and responsibilities—rather than the opposite.
  5. Rosy Retrospection Bias - people overestimate the good aspects of the past.
  6. Sunk Cost Fallacy - whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.
  7. The Diderot Effect - perhaps linked to the confirmation bias where we surround ourselves with information the confirms preexisting beliefs. The Diderot effect takes this into the physical realm, we generally surround ourselves with objects that fit our current sense of identity.
  8. The Singularity Effect - we care disproportionately about an individual as compared to a group.
  9. Availability Heuristic[1] - people tend to use the ease with which they can think of examples when making decisions.
  10. Anchoring Effect - the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the “anchor”) when making decisions.
  11. Hindsight Bias - the tendency to think that an event was more obvious or predictable than it really was.
  12. Halo Effect - people assume a person or thing is good in every way because of one good characteristic.
  13. Scarcity Effect - makes people more likely to buy something when they think it’s about to run out or be taken away from them.
  14. Appeal to Pity - 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.
  15. 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.

Personal Bias Suppression

Analyzing one's beliefs, preferences, or associations while experiencing personal bias suppression can lead to new perspectives that would take years of in depth psychoanalysis. The suppression of this innate tendency often induces the realization that certain aspects of a person's personality, world view and culture are not reflective of objective truths about reality, but are in fact subjective or even delusional opinions.[2] This realization often leads to or accompanies deep states of insight and critical introspection which can create significant alterations in a person's perspective that last anywhere from days, weeks, months, or even years after the experience itself. Personal bias suppression is one of the hallmark effects of using psychedelics.

Bias Perception Advantage

Once you can see bias in yourself you will start to see bias in others. Artificial intelligence is doing this already by taking advantage of human heuristics to convince us that AI constructed language is in fact coming from a human. This is because human judgments of AI-generated language are handicapped by intuitive but flawed heuristics such as associating first-person pronouns, authentic words, or family topics with humanity. The latest GPT language algorithms know this and are taking advantage of this fact.[3]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow
  2. ↑ Horváth, Lajos; Szummer, Csaba; Szabo, Attila (2017). "Weak phantasy and visionary phantasy: the phenomenological significance of altered states of consciousness". Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. 17 (1): 117–129. doi:10.1007/s11097-016-9497-4. ISSN 1568-7759.
  3. ↑ AI-Mediated Communication: How the Perception that Profile Text was Written by AI Affects Trustworthiness. CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsMay 2019 Paper No.: 239Pages 1–13https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300469
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