List of Cognitive Biases and Heuristics - The Decision Lab (original) (raw)

Biases

AI Literacy Gap Why do we feel so confident using generative AI while our AI literacy lags behind?Accountability diffusion in AI Why do AI systems make responsibility feel like no one’s job?Action Bias Why do we prefer doing something to doing nothing?Affect Heuristic Why do we rely on our current emotions when making quick decisions?Ambiguity Effect Why do we prefer options we know?Anchoring Bias Why do we compare everything to the first piece of information we received?Attentional Bias Why do we focus more on some things than others?Authority Bias Why do we always trust the doctor, even though they might be wrong?Automation Bias Why do we accept the first plausible AI solution and stop searching?Availability Heuristic Why do we tend to think that things that happened recently are more likely to happen again?Bandwagon Effect Why do we support opinions as they become more popular?Barnum Effect Why do we believe our horoscopes?Base Rate Fallacy Why do we rely on specific information over statistics?Belief Perseverance (The Backfire Effect) Why do we maintain the same beliefs, even when we are proved wrong?Benjamin Franklin effect Why do we like someone more after doing them a favor?Bikeshedding Why do we focus on trivial things?Bottom-Dollar Effect Why do we transfer negative emotions about being broke on items that we purchase?Bounded Rationality Why are we satisfied by “good enough?”Bundling Bias Why do we value items purchased in a bundle less than those purchased individually?Bye-Now Effect Why are we likely to spend more after reading the word “bye”?Cashless Effect Why does paying without physical cash increase the likelihood that we purchase something?Category Size Bias Why do we think we’re more likely to win at the big casino versus the small one?Choice Overload Why do we have a harder time choosing when we have more options?Cognitive Dissonance Why is it so hard to change someone's beliefs?Commitment Bias Why do people support their past ideas, even when presented with evidence that they're wrong?Confirmation Bias Why do we favor our existing beliefs?Decision Fatigue Why do we make worse decisions at the end of the day?Declinism Why do we think the past is better than the future?Decoy Effect Why do we feel more strongly about one option after a third one is added?Delegation Creep Why do we keep handing more decisions to AI?Disposition Effect Why do we tend to hold on to losing investments?Distinction Bias Why do we view options as more distinct when evaluating them simultaneously?Dunning–Kruger Effect Why do we fail to accurately gauge our own abilities?Einstellung Effect Why do our past experiences prevent us from reaching the best possible outcome?Empathy Gap Why do we mispredict how much our emotions influence our behavior?Endowment Effect Why do we value items more if they belong to us?Extrinsic Incentive Bias Why do we think others are in it for the money, but we’re in it for the experience?False Consensus Effect Why do we overestimate agreement?Framing Effect Why do our decisions depend on how options are presented to us?Functional Fixedness Why do we have trouble thinking outside the box?Fundamental Attribution Error Why do we underestimate the influence of the situation on people’s behavior?Gambler's Fallacy Why do we think a random event is more or less likely to occur if it happened several times in the past?Google Effect Why do we forget information that we just looked up?Halo Effect Why do positive impressions produced in one area positively influence our opinions in another area?Hard-easy effect Why is our confidence disproportionate to the difficulty of a task?Heuristics Why do we take mental shortcuts?Hindsight Bias Why do unpredictable events only seem predictable after they occur?Hot Hand Fallacy Why do we expect previous success to lead to future success?Hyperbolic Discounting Why do we value immediate rewards more than long-term rewards?IKEA Effect Why do we place disproportionately high value on things we helped to create?Identifiable Victim Effect Why are we more likely to offer help to a specific individual than a vague group?Illusion of Control Why do we think we have more control over the world than we do?Illusion of Transparency Why do we feel that others can read our mind?Illusion of Validity Why are we overconfident in our predictions?Illusory Correlation Why do we think some things are related when they aren’t?Illusory Truth Effect Why do we believe misinformation more easily when it’s repeated many times?Impact Bias Why do we overestimate our emotional reactions to future events?In-group Bias Why do we treat our in-group better than we do our out-group?Incentivization Why do we work harder when we are promised a reward?Just-world Hypothesis Why do we believe that we get what we deserve?Lag Effect Why does spacing out the repetition of information make one more likely to remember it?Law of the Instrument Why do we use the same skills everywhere?Less-is-Better Effect Why do our preferences change depending on whether we judge our options together or separately?Leveling and Sharpening Why do we exaggerate some details of a story, but minimize others?Levels of Processing Why do we remember information that we attach significance to better than information we repeat?Look-elsewhere Effect Why do scientists keep looking for a statistically significant result after failing to find one initially?Loss Aversion Why do we buy insurance?Mental Accounting Why do we think less about some purchases than others?Mere Exposure Effect Why do we prefer things that we are familiar with?Messenger Effect Why do we find some people more credible than others?Motivating Uncertainty Effect Why are we more motivated by rewards of unknown sizes?Naive Allocation Why do we prefer to spread limited resources across our options?Naive Realism Why do we believe we have an objective understanding of the world?Negativity Bias Why is the news always so depressing?Noble Edge Effect Why do we tend to favor brands that show care for societal issues?Normalcy Bias Why do we believe that nothing bad is going to happen?Nostalgia Effect How do our sentimental feelings for the past influence our actions in the present?Observer Expectancy Effect Why do we change our behavior when we’re being watched?Omission Bias Why don’t we pull the trolley lever?Optimism Bias Why do we overestimate the probability of success?Ostrich Effect Why do we prefer to ignore negative information?Outcome bias Why do we judge decisions by results alone?Overjustification Effect Why do we lose interest in an activity after we are rewarded for it?Parasocial Trust in AI Why do human-like AI chats make us overshare and obey?Peak-end Rule How do our memories differ from our experiences?Pessimism bias Why do we think we’re destined to fail?Planning Fallacy Why do we underestimate how long it will take to complete a task?Pluralistic Ignorance Why do we think our beliefs are different from the majority?Present Bias Why does timing shape how much value we assign to rewards?Primacy Effect Why do we only remember the first things on our grocery list?Priming Why do some ideas prompt other ideas later on without our conscious awareness?Projection Bias Why do we think our current preferences will remain the same in the future?Reactive devaluation Why is negotiation so difficult?Recency Effect Why do we better remember items at the end of a list?Regret Aversion Why do we anticipate regret before we make a decision?Representativeness Heuristic Why do we use similarity to gauge statistical probability?Response Bias Why do we give false survey responses?Restraint Bias Why do we overestimate our self-control?Rosy Retrospection Why do we think the good old days were so good?Salience Bias Why do we focus on items or information that are more prominent and ignore those that are not?Self-serving Bias Why do we blame external factors for our own mistakes?Serial Position Effect Why do we better remember items at the beginning or end of a list?Sexual Overperception Bias Why do men think that women are always flirting with them?Social Norms Why do we follow the behavior of others?Source Confusion Why do we forget where our memories come from?Spacing Effect Why do we retain information better when we learn it over a long time period?Spotlight Effect Why do we feel like we stand out more than we really do?Status Quo Bias Why do we tend to leave things as they are?Suggestibility Why are we swayed by those around us?Survivorship Bias Why do we misjudge groups by only looking at specific group members?Take-the-best Heuristic Why do we focus on one characteristic to compare when choosing between alternatives?Telescoping Effect Why do some things “seem like they just happened yesterday?”The Illusion of Explanatory Depth Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?The Pygmalion effect Why do we perform better when someone has high expectations of us?The Sunk Cost Fallacy Why are we likely to continue with an investment even if it would be rational to give it up?Zero Risk Bias Why do we seek certainty in risky situations?