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Biases: behavioral
Many of these biases are studied for how they affect belief formation, business
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Bandwagon effect | the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Related to groupthink and herd behaviour. |
Base rate fallacy | ignoring available statistical data in favor of particulars. |
Bias blind spot | the tendency not to compensate for one's own cognitive biases. |
Choice-supportive bias | the tendency to remember one's choices as better than they actually were. |
Confirmation bias | the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. |
Congruence bias | the tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing, in contrast to tests of possible alternative hypotheses. |
Contrast effect | the enhancement or diminishing of a weight or other measurement when compared with a recently observed contrasting object. |
Déformation professionnelle | the tendency to look at things according to the conventions of one's own profession, forgetting any broader point of view. |
Denomination effect | the tendency to spend more money when it is denominated in small amounts (e.g. coins) than large amounts (e.g. bills). |
Distinction bias | the tendency to view two options as more dissimilar when evaluating them simultaneously than when evaluating them separately. |
Endowment effect | "the fact that people often demand much more to give up an object than they would be willing to pay to acquire it". |
Experimenter's or Expectation bias | tendency for experimenters to believe/certify/publish data that agree with expectations for outcome of an experiment & to disbelieve/discard/downgrade weightings for data that appear to conflict with those expectations. |
Extraordinarity bias | the tendency to value an object more than others in the same category as a result of an extraordinarity of that object that does not, in itself, change the value. |
Extreme aversion | the tendency to avoid extremes, being more likely to choose an option if it is the intermediate choice. |
Focusing effect | prediction bias occurring when people place too much importance on one aspect of an event; causes error in accurately predicting the utility of a future outcome. |
Framing | Using an approach or description of the situation or issue that is too narrow. Also framing effect |
Hyperbolic discounting | the tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs, where the tendency increases the closer to the present both payoffs are. |
Illusion of control | the tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes that they clearly cannot. |
Impact bias | the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states. |
Information bias | the tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action. |
Irrational escalation | the tendency to make irrational decisions based upon rational decisions in the past or to justify actions already taken. |
Loss aversion | "the disutility of giving up an object is greater than the utility associated with acquiring it". (see also sunk cost effects and Endowment effect). |
Mere exposure effect | the tendency for people to express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them. |
Moral credential effect | the tendency of a track record of non-prejudice to increase subsequent prejudice. |
Need for closure | the need to reach a verdict in important matters; to have an answer and to escape the feeling of doubt and uncertainty. The personal context (time or social pressure) might increase this bias. |
Neglect of probability | the tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty. |
Not Invented Here | the tendency to ignore that a product or solution already exists, because its source is seen as an "enemy" or as "inferior". |
Omission bias | the tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral, than equally harmful omissions (inactions). |
Outcome bias | the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made. |
Planning fallacy | the tendency to underestimate task-completion times. |
Post-purchase rationalization | the tendency to persuade oneself through rational argument that a purchase was a good value. |
Pseudocertainty effect | the tendency to make risk-averse choices if the expected outcome is positive, but make risk-seeking choices to avoid negative outcomes. |
Reactance | 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. |
Restraint bias | the tendency to overestimate one's ability to show restraint in the face of temptation. |
Selective perception | the tendency for expectations to affect perception. |
Semmelweis reflex | the tendency to reject new evidence that contradicts an established paradigm. |
Status quo bias | the tendency for people to like things to stay relatively the same (see also loss aversion, endowment effect, and system justification). |
Von Restorff effect | the tendency for an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" to be more likely to be remembered than other items. |
Wishful thinking | the formation of beliefs and the making of decisions according to what is pleasing to imagine instead of by appeal to evidence or rationality. |
Zero-risk bias | preference for reducing a small risk to zero over a greater reduction in a larger risk. |