List of Common Cognitive Biases and Other Workings of the Mind

The aim of this article is to describes some of the more important workings of the mind, as well as to go through some of the most common and powerful cognitive biases. The hope is that by familiarizing yourself with how your mind can trick you, might prevent cognitive biases from having a negative impact in situations where the stakes are high.

An introduction to the basic workings of the mind can be found through this link. The terms “System 1” used below, will also be explained there.

Priming Effects

When talking about priming effects, associative thinking is key for understanding it. If we start with an idea (something in your memory), say: an apple, System 1 automatically invokes other ideas that you associate with it, e.g.: green, fruit, healthy, etc. These ideas in turn activates other ideas, like a cascade of domino bricks. This all happens at once, and furthermore, only a few of the activated ideas will register in consciousness, which means that most these ideas are silent, hidden from our conscious selves. Said in another way, one initial idea can prime other ideas and so on, and often without us being conscious aware that it had happened. This is e.g. how the advertising business can guide our subconscious thoughts by priming the right ideas in our mind. EAT. Try to finish the word: SO_P. Experiments show that most people answer soup. On the other hand, when primed with wash, most people answered soap. This is what is meant by priming effects; and they can be a dangerous manipulator of our subconscious, and strongly influence how we make decisions.

Exaggerated Emotional Coherence (The Halo Effect)

The halo effect is the tendency to like (or dislike) everything about a person, object or situation, including things that is not yet observed. It is one of the ways System 1 generates a more coherent and simple model of the world than it really is.

If you bought an Audi because you like the design and how it makes you feel when you drive it; you would probably also favour the company Audi, compared to other car companies; even though you knew nothing about how they do their business. If asked to describe the CEO of Audi, you would quite possibly use positive adjectives, like smart, intelligent, and hardworking; even though you did not know the first thing about the CEO. This is the halo effect in play.

Another outcome is that it increases the weight of first impressions, sometimes to the point that subsequent information is mostly wasted. A short example of this is Solomon Asch’s classic of psychology, that presented a description of two persons. What do you think of Alan and Ben?

Alan: intelligent - industrious - impulsive - critical - stubborn - envious

Ben: envious - stubborn - critical - impulsive - industrious - intelligent

If you are like most people, you favoured Alan. Again, this is the halo effect in play.

What you see is all there is (WYSIATI)

In short, WYSIATI is a rule where the mind focuses on existing evidence and ignores absent evidence. It is a rule for describing how System 1 is jumping to conclusions on the basis of limited evidence. In his book, The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb introduced the notion of a “narrative fallacy” to describe how flawed stories of the past, shapes our understanding of the present, and the expectations of the future. At work here, is inevitably how System 1 continuously tries to make sense of the world, even though it only has limited amount of evidence. It creates the most coherent story it can with the available information; and if it is a good story, we believe it. The paradox here, is that it is easier to construct a “good” coherent story with fewer pieces of information. Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance. That being said; most of the time, the coherent story System 1 creates is close enough to reality justify reasonable action. However, “what you see is all there is” is the basis for explaining a long list of biases of judgement, including: “overconfidence effect”, “framing effect”, as well as the above described “halo effect”.

Overconfidence Effect

To be written (TBW)

Framing Effect

TBW

Confirmation Bias

TBW

Outcome Bias

TBW

Answering an Easier Question

TBW