Cognitive Bias

flinkliv
2 min readMay 29, 2021

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What is cognitive bias?

Cognitive biases are systematic errors in our thinking process that leads to poor judgments and bad decisions.

When we process and interpret information to make decisions, we are constantly influenced by internal thoughts and beliefs (cognitive biases) that are not necessarily reasonable, reliable, or even accurate. Cognitive biases create mental barriers that block or filter the reality of a situation.

The good news is that the process of making decisions could be improved by being aware and recognizing those cognitive biases.

Examples of cognitive biases

Example of confirmation bias:

Example of confirmation bias: Conversation between A and B about confirmation bias. A: I will never vote for the Pink one B: Why? A: None of my friends like him. I read a lot of bad news about him on social media B: This is confirmation bias. A: What do you mean? B: The chances are that most of your friends post information that reinforces your beliefs B: Have you consider the idea that you might be wrong? B: You need to look for news that challenges your beliefs
Example of confirmation bias

Example of confirmation bias:

Example of confirmation bias: Conversation between A and B about confirmation bias. A: I will never travel by plane again B: Why? A: I googled it. 125 accidents in 2019 and 90 in 2020. B: This is confirmation bias A: What do you mean? B: You need to look for news that challenges your beliefs B: Air travel risks are 0.07 deaths for every 1 billion miles traveled.
Example of confirmation bias

Example of survivorship bias:

Example of survivorship bias: Conversation between A and B about survivorship bias. A: I decided to buy cryptocurrency B: Why? A: The Pink told me his success story. He made a huge gain B: This is survivorship bias A: What do you mean? B: You heard the one that survived. You heard only from the guy who succeeded. But how many lost their money
Example of survivorship bias

Example of cognitive bias towards introverts:

Example of cognitive bias towards introverts: Conversation between A and B about cognitive bias towards introverts. A: The Red is an introvert B: So what? A: He must be anti-social, shy, not-confident, maybe even depressed B: This is a cognitive bias towards introverts A: What do you mean? B: You are stereotyping introverts B: You described behaviors that apply to both introverts and extroverts B: Introverts get energy from the inside; it has nothing to do with being anti-social or not-confident
Example of cognitive bias towards introverts

Example of availability heuristic:

Example of availability heuristic: Conversation between A and B about Availability Heuristic. A: I want to play a lottery B: Why? A: I want to be happy like the winners on TV B: Oh, boy. This is an Availability Heuristic; it is a cognitive bias A: What? B: Thanks to the advertising industry, happy winners are the immediate and only examples that come to your mind B: The ads don’t show you the over majority of losers. Or the winners that ruined their lives.
Example of availability heuristic

Feel free to visit our website flinkliv to learn more about personal and interpersonal skills such as decision-making, critical thinking, cognitive biases, reverse thinking, problem solving, logical fallacy, conflict management, difficult people, power currencies, and more.

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flinkliv
flinkliv

Written by flinkliv

Let’s improve ourselves to have a better life. La oss forbedre oss til å få et bedre liv.

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