Anchoring cognitive bias refers to the human tendency to rely heavily on the first piece of information encountered (the 'anchor') when making decisions. This bias impacts judgment and decision-making processes by disproportionately influencing subsequent thoughts and choices based on the initial anchor point.
Anthropomorphism refers to the cognitive bias where humans attribute human-like characteristics, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities, whether they are animals, objects, or abstract concepts. This bias stems from our inherent need to understand and relate to entities around us, often using human traits as a means to interpret vague or minimal information.
The appeal to novelty is a cognitive bias where people tend to prefer newer ideas, technologies, or products over older ones, regardless of their actual utility or value. It operates under the assumption that because something is new, it is inherently better or more desirable than the old. This bias is often involved in marketing and innovation-driven fields, where the promise of something being the 'latest and greatest' can heavily influence consumer behavior and decision making.
Authority bias is a cognitive bias that leads individuals to attribute greater accuracy and truthfulness to the opinion of an authority figure and to be more influenced by their perspective. This bias stems from a natural human tendency to trust and follow the guidance of those who are perceived as experts or leaders.
The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias that occurs when individuals rely on immediate examples that come to mind while evaluating a situation, idea, or decision. This bias arises from our tendency to give undue weight to information that is readily retrievable from memory, often due to recent exposure or repeated emphasis, rather than considering broader data sets or statistical realities.
The bizarreness effect is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for bizarre or unusual information to be more easily remembered than common or mundane information. This phenomenon falls under the category of information overload, as bizarre things have a greater chance of standing out and being noticed amidst a flood of information.
The Cheerleader Effect, also known as the group attractiveness effect, is a cognitive bias where people perceive individuals as more attractive when they are in a group compared to when they are alone. This phenomenon gained popular attention partly due to its mention in popular media but is backed by scientific observations.
The context effect cognitive bias refers to the influence that environmental factors can have on a person's perception and memory retrieval. When information is repeated in varied contexts, it can have an impactful influence on how effectively memory is encoded, stored, and later retrieved. Under the subcategory of repetition and memory is noticed, it highlights how external cues from the environment can either aid or hinder memory recall. Often associated with cue-dependent forgetting, the presence or absence of specific associative cues can determine the accessibility of memories.
The cross-race effect, also known as own-race bias, refers to the tendency for people to more easily recognize faces of their own race compared to faces of other races. This cognitive bias is prevalent in facial recognition tasks and has significant implications in various fields, such as criminal justice, psychological research, and social interactions.
The decoy effect, also known as the asymmetric dominance effect, is a cognitive bias where the presence of a third option, the 'decoy', influences the choice between two primary options. This decoy is designed to make one of the primary options appear more attractive, guiding the decision-maker to favor it.
The Denomination Effect is a cognitive bias that entails the tendency for individuals to prefer spending money offered in smaller denominations rather than larger ones. This psychological phenomenon demonstrates how the form in which money is presented can influence financial decision-making and spending behaviors.
Distinction bias is a cognitive bias that occurs when people perceive two options as more dissimilar when evaluating them simultaneously than when evaluating them separately. This bias leads individuals to overemphasize minor differences while neglecting overall similarities.
Effort justification is a cognitive bias where people tend to assign greater value to an outcome they worked hard to achieve, regardless of the objective worth of the outcome. This bias stems from cognitive dissonance, where individuals experience discomfort when their actions do not align with their beliefs or attitudes, prompting them to justify their effort to maintain internal consistency.
The Endowment Effect is a cognitive bias wherein people ascribe more value to things merely because they own them. This phenomenon suggests an emotional attachment and often an irrational overvaluation of such items.
Extrinsic incentive error is a cognitive bias where people tend to overestimate the influence of extrinsic incentives (such as money or rewards) on others' behaviors, while undervaluing intrinsic motivations (like personal satisfaction or enjoyment). It can lead to a misunderstanding of why people perform certain actions or participate in activities.
The framing effect is a cognitive bias where individuals react differently depending on how information is presented, rather than the information itself. This bias is classified under information overload, particularly in the 'change is noticed' subcategory, which addresses how alterations in information presentation can lead to different perceptions and decisions.
The frequency illusion, also known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, is a cognitive bias where after noticing something for the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more frequently, leading to a false belief that its frequency has increased. This bias is a component of information overload, specifically in the realm of repetition and memory recognition.
The Halo Effect is a cognitive bias where our overall impression of a person, brand, or product influences our feelings and thoughts about their specific traits. If we perceive someone or something positively in one area, we are likely to have a positive bias for their other characteristics as well.
The Identifiable Victim Effect is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency of individuals to offer greater aid when a specific, identifiable individual is observed under hardship, as opposed to a large, vaguely explained group with the same need. This bias demonstrates how humans are more emotionally moved and compelled to act when faced with a particular person's plight rather than statistical information or a broader context.
The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created. Named after the popular Swedish furniture retailer, which sells products needing assembly, the effect highlights how the act of building or assembling something can lead to an increased valuation of the end product.
Illusory correlation is a cognitive bias that describes the tendency to perceive a relationship between two variables even when no such relationship exists. This bias is particularly likely to occur with low-frequency variables or when the data is sparse. It often leads individuals to form and maintain specific beliefs or stereotypes based on misleading or insufficient information.
The illusory truth effect is a cognitive bias that describes how repeated exposure to information can lead to its perception as more truthful or accurate, regardless of its veracity. This phenomenon occurs because repetition makes statements easier to process, and this ease is often misattributed to truthfulness.
In-group bias, also known as in-group favoritism, is a cognitive bias where individuals tend to favor, support, and give preferential treatment to members of their own group over those in other groups. This bias is a fundamental aspect of human social interaction where familiar things and familiarity with the in-group lead to implicit positive associations, often regardless of objective evidence or actual differences among groups.
The less-is-better effect is a cognitive bias where individuals may prefer fewer or simpler options over more abundant or complex ones, even if the latter offer a greater value or reward. This preference arises because the simpler option is perceived as more desirable when evaluated in isolation rather than in comparison to a set.
The mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon where people tend to develop a preference for things they are repeatedly exposed to. This cognitive bias suggests that familiarity with something can lead to affection, even if it was initially neutral or disinterested.
The misattribution of memory is a cognitive bias that involves incorrectly recalling the source or context of a particular memory. It occurs when a person attributes a memory or idea to the wrong source, leading to distortions and inaccuracies in recollection. This bias can cause individuals to believe they remember something that never actually happened or confuse the details of separate events.
The modality effect is a cognitive bias that describes the differences in learning and memory retention based on the mode of information presentation. It often refers to the phenomenon where individuals remember information better when it is presented in an auditory rather than visual format, especially for short-term retention of sequences or lists.
The peak-end rule is a cognitive bias that impacts how people retrospectively evaluate experiences. According to this rule, individuals tend to judge experiences based largely on how they felt at the most intense point (the peak) and at the end, rather than on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.
The picture superiority effect is a cognitive bias that suggests images and pictures are more likely to be remembered than words. This phenomenon indicates that when information is presented as both pictures and text, the visual representation tends to be retained more effectively in our memory.
The positivity effect is a cognitive bias that entails an increased focus on positive information while minimizing negative information. It suggests that individuals, especially as they age, are more likely to remember positive events over negative ones, contributing to an overall more optimistic worldview. This bias is often linked to emotional regulation strategies that prioritize well-being and happiness.
Post-purchase rationalization, also known as choice-supportive bias, is a cognitive bias where individuals tend to retroactively justify their past purchases and decisions, often distorting the value or quality of their choices. This psychological phenomenon occurs as a way to alleviate cognitive dissonance, which is the mental discomfort experienced when a person holds contradictory beliefs or values.
Projection bias is a cognitive bias that describes the human tendency to overestimate the degree to which their future preferences and tastes will align with their current preferences and tastes. This bias is a type of misforecasting that occurs when individuals assume that their emotional states and desires will remain unchanged over time.
The pseudocertainty effect is a cognitive bias that refers to individuals' tendency to make risk-averse choices when outcomes are framed as gains, and risk-seeking choices when they are framed as losses. This occurs despite the objective probabilities and outcomes remaining the same. The bias highlights how problem framing can significantly influence decision-making, particularly under conditions of uncertainty.
Reactance is a cognitive bias referring to the emotional reaction individuals have when they perceive their autonomy to be threatened or their range of options to be limited. This psychological response often leads to behavior that is contrary to what is being imposed, as an attempt to regain control or freedom. When people perceive their freedoms are being infringed upon, they may be motivated to restore those freedoms, even at the cost of making irrational decisions. This bias falls under the category 'Need for Speed' due to the immediate and instinctive nature of the response and the subcategory 'Motivated to preserve autonomy and status.'
The recency effect is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency of individuals to better remember the most recently presented items or experiences. This bias is commonly observed when recalling items from a list or events that have just occurred, demonstrating that the most recent information tends to be more impactful on memory recall compared to earlier information.
Reverse psychology is a persuasion technique that involves advocating for a behavior or outcome that is the opposite of what is desired, with the expectation that the recipient of the communication will be motivated to assert their autonomy and choose the original desired outcome. This technique often exploits the cognitive bias where individuals are motivated to preserve their sense of autonomy and status.
The Rhyme as reason effect, also known as the 'Eaton-Rosen phenomenon,' is a cognitive bias where people perceive rhyming statements as more truthful or accurate compared to non-rhyming equivalents. This effect capitalizes on the human inclination towards simple, complete phrases over complex or ambiguous ones, suggesting that a statement's form can significantly influence its perceived truthfulness.
The self-relevance effect, a cognitive bias, is the tendency for individuals to better remember information that relates to themselves than information that has less personal relevance. This bias fundamentally affects how we process and prioritize the vast amount of information we encounter daily, making personally relevant information particularly salient.
The Serial Position Effect is a cognitive bias that influences how people recall items from a list. This effect suggests that individuals tend to remember the first and last items in a series better than those in the middle. This phenomenon reveals key insights into human memory and information retention, providing a framework for understanding how we prioritize and recall data.
The Serial Recall Effect is a cognitive bias involving the tendency to recall the first and last items in a series more readily than those in the middle. This cognitive bias is primarily observed when humans try to remember a sequence of information, such as a list of words, numbers, or events. It impacts how people remember and retrieve information, often preserving the beginning and the end of sequences better than the middle.
Social desirability bias is a cognitive bias where individuals tend to answer questions or behave in ways they perceive as being more socially acceptable, rather than being truthful or authentic. This often results in skewed data in surveys, interviews, and research, as people provide responses they believe will make them look favorable in the eyes of others.
The Spotlight Effect is a cognitive bias where individuals overestimate the degree to which their actions and appearance are noticed by others. It is part of a broader category of biases related to a lack of meaning and belongs to the subgroup of knowing what others are thinking. The term refers to the mental 'spotlight' individuals feel that they believe highlights their flaws and mistakes in front of others.
The suffix effect is a cognitive bias that affects how information is remembered, particularly when it comes to lists and sequences. It refers to the phenomenon where the recall of the last items in a list is impaired when a distracting suffix is added immediately after the list. This effect highlights the intricacies of memory mechanisms, especially concerning auditory stimuli.
Suggestibility is a cognitive bias where a person's memory or perception can be influenced by external information, leading to the incorporation of inaccurate details into their memories or beliefs. This bias often occurs when individuals are exposed to misleading information after an event, which can reinforce or alter their recollections.
The third-person effect is a cognitive bias where individuals believe that other people are more affected by media messages than they are themselves. This perception can lead people to overestimate the influence of media on others while underestimating its effect on themselves.
The Von Restorff effect, also known as the isolation effect, is a cognitive bias that predicts an item noticeably different from others will be more likely to be remembered. This concept hinges on the principle that unusual or distinctive features enhance memory recall within a list of otherwise homogenous items.
The Weber-Fechner law is a principle that attempts to explain the relationship between the physical magnitude of a stimulus and the perceived intensity of that stimulus, suggesting that the perceived change in a given stimulus is proportional to the initial intensity of that stimulus. It is named after Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner, who pioneered early research in sensory perception.