Cognitive bias

A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.^[1] Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of reality, not the objective input, may dictate their behavior in the world. Thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, and irrationality.^[2]^[3]^[4]

While cognitive biases may initially appear to be negative, some are adaptive. They may lead to more effective actions in a given context.^[5] Furthermore, allowing cognitive biases enables faster decisions which can be desirable when timeliness is more valuable than accuracy, as illustrated in heuristics.^[6] Other cognitive biases are a "by-product" of human processing limitations,^[1] resulting from a lack of appropriate mental mechanisms (bounded rationality), the impact of an individual's constitution and biological state (see embodied cognition), or simply from a limited capacity for information processing.^[7]^[8] Research suggests that cognitive biases can make individuals more inclined to endorsing pseudoscientific beliefs by requiring less evidence for claims that confirm their preconceptions. This can potentially distort their perceptions and lead to inaccurate judgments.^[9]

A continually evolving list of cognitive biases has been identified over the last six decades of research on human judgment and decision-making in cognitive science, social psychology, and behavioral economics. The study of cognitive biases has practical implications for areas including clinical judgment, entrepreneurship, finance, and management.^[10]^[11]

Biases specific to groups (such as the ) versus biases at the individual level.

risky shift

Biases that affect , where the desirability of options has to be considered (e.g., sunk costs fallacy).

decision-making

Biases, such as , that affect judgment of how likely something is or whether one thing is the cause of another.

illusory correlation

Biases that affect memory, such as consistency bias (remembering one's past attitudes and behavior as more similar to one's present attitudes).

[18]

Biases that reflect a subject's motivation, for example, the desire for a positive self-image leading to egocentric bias and the avoidance of unpleasant cognitive dissonance.^[20]

[19]

Bounded rationality

Prospect theory

Evolutionary psychology

[57]

— making a complex, difficult judgment by unconsciously replacing it with an easier judgment^[58]

Attribute substitution

Attribution theory

Salience

Cognitive dissonance

Impression management

[59]

Emotional

[61]

Introspection illusion

Misinterpretations or ; innumeracy.

misuse of statistics

^[62]

Social influence

The brain's limited information processing capacity

[63]

Noisy information processing (distortions during storage in and retrieval from memory). For example, a 2012 Psychological Bulletin article suggests that at least eight seemingly unrelated biases can be produced by the same information-theoretic generative mechanism.^[64] The article shows that noisy deviations in the memory-based information processes that convert objective evidence (observations) into subjective estimates (decisions) can produce regressive conservatism, the belief revision (Bayesian conservatism), illusory correlations, illusory superiority (better-than-average effect) and worse-than-average effect, subadditivity effect, exaggerated expectation, overconfidence, and the hard–easy effect.

[64]

Bias arises from various processes that are sometimes difficult to distinguish. These include:

Criticism[edit]

Cognitive bias theory loses the sight of any distinction between reason and bias. If every bias can be seen as a reason, and every reason can be seen as a bias, then the distinction is lost.^[70]

Criticism against theories of cognitive biases is usually founded in the fact that both sides of a debate often claim the other's thoughts to be subject to human nature and the result of cognitive bias, while claiming their own point of view to be above the cognitive bias and the correct way to "overcome" the issue. This rift ties to a more fundamental issue that stems from a lack of consensus in the field, thereby creating arguments that can be non-falsifiably used to validate any contradicting viewpoint.

Gerd Gigerenzer is one of the main opponents to cognitive biases and heuristics.^[71]^[72]^[73] Gigerenzer believes that cognitive biases are not biases, but rules of thumb, or as he would put it "gut feelings" that can actually help us make accurate decisions in our lives. His view shines a much more positive light on cognitive biases than many other researchers. Many view cognitive biases and heuristics as irrational ways of making decisions and judgements.

Media related to Cognitive biases at Wikimedia Commons

Quotations related to Cognitive bias at Wikiquote

The Roots of Consciousness: To Err Is human

(archived 20 June 2006)