12 Cognitive Biases Explained - How to Think Better and More Logically Removing Bias

Summary

This video script delves into 12 common cognitive biases that influence our decision-making. It explains concepts like anchoring bias, availability heuristic, and the bandwagon effect, illustrating how they shape our perceptions and choices. The script uses relatable examples to highlight the impact of these biases, such as the perception of terrorism threats versus the actual risks from everyday objects. It also addresses biases like confirmation bias, outcome bias, and survivorship bias, revealing how they can lead to flawed judgments and overconfidence. The video aims to raise awareness about these psychological phenomena to promote more rational decision-making.

Takeaways

• 🔑 Anchoring Bias: We rely heavily on the first piece of information we receive, which can skew our decision-making process.
• 🌳 Availability Heuristic Bias: We overestimate the likelihood of events based on how easily they come to mind, often influenced by media coverage.
• 🚶 Bandwagon Effect: People tend to conform to the majority opinion or action, sometimes without critical thought.
• 🛡️ Choice-Supportive Bias: Once a decision is made, individuals tend to rationalize it by emphasizing the positives and downplaying the negatives.
• 🔍 Confirmation Bias: We favor information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs and ignore or dismiss contradictory evidence.
• 🦉 Ostrich Bias: Ignoring negative information can lead to poor decision-making and a false sense of security.
• 🎯 Outcome Bias: Judging decisions based on outcomes rather than the thought process behind them can lead to flawed evaluations.
• 💡 Overconfidence Bias: Excessive confidence in one's own abilities can lead to ignoring important information and taking unnecessary risks.
• 💊 Placebo Bias: Belief in a treatment's effectiveness can actually cause a real improvement, even if the treatment is inert.
• 🏆 Survivorship Bias: Focusing only on successful examples can lead to an incomplete understanding and potentially flawed conclusions.
• 👀 Selective Perception: People tend to notice and remember information that aligns with their beliefs and ignore contradictory data.
• 🌐 Blind Spot Bias: Most people believe they are less biased than others, which can lead to an underestimation of one's own biases.

Q & A

What is anchoring bias and how does it affect decision-making?

Anchoring bias is the tendency to rely heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions. It influences the perception of subsequent information, causing individuals to make decisions based on an initial 'anchor' value, which may not be reliable or accurate.

Can you provide an example of how anchoring bias works in a car sale scenario?

In the car sale example, if a seller initially quotes a high price (e.g., $30,000) and later offers a lower price (e.g., $20,000), the buyer perceives the lower price as a good deal due to the initial high anchor. Conversely, if the initial price is quoted as $10,000 and then raised to $20,000, it seems less attractive because the anchor was lower.

What is the availability heuristic bias and why is it misleading?

The availability heuristic bias is the tendency to overestimate the likelihood of events based on how easily they come to mind. It's misleading because it often leads people to make decisions based on information that is readily available or frequently reported in the media, rather than on actual probabilities or statistics.

How does the bandwagon effect influence people's beliefs and actions?

The bandwagon effect occurs when people adopt beliefs or actions because they perceive them as popular or commonly accepted. It can lead to conformity without critical thinking, as individuals may follow the majority simply to fit in, rather than making independent judgments.

What is choice-supportive bias and how does it manifest in consumer behavior?

Choice-supportive bias is the tendency to rationalize and defend one's choices after they have been made. In consumer behavior, it can manifest as a person focusing on the positive aspects of a chosen product while downplaying or ignoring its flaws, in order to feel validated about their decision.

How does confirmation bias impact the way we interpret information?

Confirmation bias leads individuals to favor information that confirms their preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. It can result in selective attention to, interpretation of, and memory for information that aligns with one's views, while contradictory evidence may be ignored or dismissed.

What is the ostrich bias and how does it relate to ignoring negative information?

The ostrich bias, also known as denial, is the tendency to ignore negative information or problems, often with the hope that they will resolve themselves. It can lead to inaction or poor decision-making, as individuals may avoid confronting issues that require difficult choices or actions.

How does outcome bias affect the evaluation of decisions?

Outcome bias is the tendency to judge decisions based on their outcomes rather than the quality of the decision-making process at the time. It can lead to the incorrect assumption that a successful outcome is the result of good decision-making, even if the decision was based on luck or flawed reasoning.

What is overconfidence bias and why can it be dangerous in decision-making?

Overconfidence bias is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or the accuracy of one's predictions. It can be dangerous in decision-making because it may lead individuals to rely too heavily on their own judgment or intuition, potentially overlooking important data or alternative perspectives.

How does the placebo bias influence health outcomes?

The placebo bias, or the placebo effect, occurs when a person experiences a perceived improvement in their condition due to their belief in the effectiveness of a treatment, even if the treatment has no active ingredients. This psychological effect can actually result in tangible health improvements, demonstrating the power of belief on physical well-being.

What is survivorship bias and how does it distort perceptions of success?

Survivorship bias is the error of focusing on the survivors or successful examples while overlooking those that failed. It can distort perceptions of success by creating the false impression that certain actions or characteristics are the primary drivers of success, when in reality, many factors, including luck, may be at play.

What is selective perception and how does it affect the way we process information?

Selective perception is a cognitive bias where individuals tend to notice and remember information that aligns with their existing beliefs or expectations, while ignoring or forgetting information that contradicts them. This can affect the way we process information by creating a skewed or biased understanding of the world.

What is blind spot bias and why is it a challenge in recognizing one's own biases?

Blind spot bias is the tendency for individuals to believe that they are less biased than others, often leading to an underestimation of one's own biases. It's a challenge in recognizing personal biases because it can prevent self-reflection and hinder the ability to objectively evaluate one's own judgments and decisions.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Cognitive Biases Overview

This paragraph introduces the topic of cognitive biases, focusing on 12 common biases researched by Is One Off TV. The video aims to explore these biases in depth, starting with the anchoring bias, which influences decision-making based on initial information received. The script provides examples of how anchoring can affect perceptions of pricing and the availability heuristic, which leads to overestimating the importance of information that is readily available. The paragraph also touches on the bandwagon effect, choice-supportive bias, and confirmation bias, illustrating how these biases can impact judgments and behaviors in various scenarios, from purchasing decisions to political choices.

05:01

🚫 Ignoring the Negative: Ostrich Bias and More

The second paragraph delves into the ostrich bias, where individuals tend to ignore negative information, often leading to a selective focus on positive aspects or wishful thinking that problems will resolve themselves. It also discusses the outcome bias, which评判s decisions based on results rather than the decision-making process itself, potentially attributing success to luck or overlooking the context in which decisions were made. Overconfidence is highlighted as a pitfall for those who have been successful in the past, leading them to rely on their gut over facts. The placebo bias is introduced, demonstrating how belief in a treatment's effectiveness can actually improve outcomes, and the concept of survivorship bias is critiqued for focusing only on successful cases while ignoring failures. Selective perception and blind spot bias are also mentioned, with the latter referring to the tendency to believe oneself to be less biased than others, even when evidence suggests otherwise.

Keywords

💡Cognitive Biases

Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking that affect the judgments and decision-making processes of humans. In the video, cognitive biases are the central theme, with 12 specific biases being discussed. They are presented as mental shortcuts that can lead to irrational or illogical behavior, impacting various aspects of life from purchasing decisions to political beliefs.

💡Anchoring Bias

Anchoring bias refers to the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions. The video illustrates this with the example of a car's price, where the initial asking price sets the benchmark for subsequent negotiations, regardless of its actual market value.

💡Availability Heuristic

The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that involves making judgments about the probability of an event or the importance of a concept based on how easily examples come to mind. The video uses the example of terrorism being perceived as a greater threat than other causes of death because it is more frequently covered in the news, despite statistical evidence to the contrary.

💡Bandwagon Effect

The bandwagon effect describes the phenomenon where people tend to adopt certain behaviors or beliefs because they are popular or widely accepted, rather than critically evaluating their own stance. The script mentions voting for a popular candidate or stock market behavior as examples where people follow the crowd without independent thought.

💡Choice-Supportive Bias

Choice-supportive bias is the tendency to remember one's choices more positively than they might have been at the time of making the decision. The video gives the example of someone defending the merits of an Apple product over a Windows PC after purchase, ignoring the downsides of their chosen product and emphasizing those of the alternative.

💡Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. The video script describes how someone might selectively focus on information that confirms their belief about sugar being unhealthy, while ignoring contradictory evidence.

💡Ostrich Bias

The ostrich bias is the act of ignoring negative information or avoiding thinking about it, similar to the behavior of an ostrich burying its head in the sand. The video uses the example of procrastination on an unwanted task, where the individual hopes the problem will resolve itself by ignoring it.

💡Outcome Bias

Outcome bias is the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome rather than based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made. The video explains this bias with the scenario of a manager making a decision based on data, which turns out to be correct, leading to the assumption that data-driven decisions are always superior, even if the outcome was due to luck.

💡Overconfidence Bias

Overconfidence bias is the tendency to overestimate one's abilities or the accuracy of one's predictions. The script provides the example of a successful stock trader who, after a series of correct predictions, starts to rely solely on their gut feeling, potentially overlooking important data.

💡Placebo Bias

Placebo bias is the phenomenon where a person experiences a perceived improvement in their condition due to their belief in the effectiveness of an inert treatment. The video mentions that even a sugar pill can cause a person to recover more quickly if they believe it will help, highlighting the power of belief on physical outcomes.

💡Survivorship Bias

Survivorship bias is the error of concentrating on the survivors of a process and overlooking those who did not survive. The video script uses the example of articles suggesting habits of millionaires, implying that these habits lead to success, without considering the many who followed the same habits and did not become millionaires.

💡Selective Perception

Selective perception is the tendency to notice and interpret information that is consistent with one's existing beliefs or preferences while ignoring or discounting information that contradicts them. The video gives the example of a smoker who is more likely to notice soccer advertisements and ignore anti-smoking ads due to their preconceived notions.

💡Blind Spot Bias

Blind spot bias is the tendency for people to perceive themselves as less biased than others, failing to recognize their own biases. The video script uses the example of a teacher who believes that gifts from students do not influence her grading, yet acknowledges that other teachers might be biased by such gestures, illustrating the difficulty in recognizing one's own bias.

Highlights

Anchoring bias is the tendency to rely heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions.

Availability heuristic bias leads people to overestimate the likelihood of events based on how available they are in memory.

The bandwagon effect describes how people are influenced to adopt beliefs or actions because others are doing so.

Choice-supportive bias causes individuals to rationalize their choices by focusing on the positive aspects of their selections.

Confirmation bias is the act of favoring information that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.

The ostrich bias involves ignoring negative information, often by considering it an outlier or hoping it will resolve itself.

Outcome bias is judging decisions based on their outcomes rather than the rationality of the decision-making process at the time.

Overconfidence bias can lead to poor decision-making as individuals place too much faith in their own judgments.

Placebo bias demonstrates how belief in a treatment's effectiveness can actually cause it to have real effects.

Survivorship bias involves drawing conclusions from the cases that 'survived' or succeeded, ignoring those that failed.

Selective perception bias causes individuals to notice and remember information that aligns with their pre-existing beliefs.

Blind spot bias is the inability to recognize one's own biases, often leading to an overestimation of one's objectivity.

Understanding cognitive biases is crucial for making more rational decisions and avoiding common pitfalls.

The video discusses cognitive biases with examples to illustrate how they influence decision-making.

The presenter encourages viewers to check out additional resources and animations on cognitive biases for further understanding.

Transcripts

hey guys practice psychology here and in

this video we're going to be talking

about 12 cognitive biases most of these

were researched by is one off TV who has

some great animations on topics like

these and other self development topics

so check them out in the description or

on the end screen now let's get into it

number one is anchoring bias we humans

usually completely rely on the first

information that we received no matter

how reliable that piece of information

is when we take decisions the very first

information has tremendous effect on our

brain for instance i want to sell you a

car and you are interested to buy it

let's say you ask me what the prices and

I tell you thirty thousand dollars now

if you come back a week later and i say

i'll sell it to you for twenty thousand

dollars

this seems like a new very cheap price

to you right because your judgment is

based on the initial information you got

which was 30,000 you feel like you're

getting a great deal but let's say the

first time that you ask me and I say

10,000 and then you come back the next

week and i tell you i'm gonna sell to

you for 20,000 now it doesn't look like

a very good deal because of the

anchoring bias this is just a very

generic use of the anchoring bias and I

don't want a bunch of comments about why

thirty thousand dollar car should be

sold for ten thousand dollars but

another example is trees

what if I asked you if the tallest tree

in the world was higher or lower than

1,200 feet and if so how tall the same

effect occurs if I asked you to guess

out of thin air instead of giving you an

anchor of 1,200 feet

the results are crazy number to

availability heuristic bias people

overestimate the importance of

information that they have let me give

you an example here some people think

that terrorism is the biggest threat to

the United States because that's what

they see on TV the news always talks

about it and because of that it inflates

the danger but if you look at the real

perspectives televisions cause 55 times

more deaths than terrorism

yes tvs literally following people and

kill them fifty five more times than

terrorism you're more likely to be

killed by a cow than a terrorist

according to the Consumer Product Safety

Commission it's more likely to die from

a coconut falling on your head and

killing you than a terrorist attack

thank you gary vaynerchuk for that one

even the police that are hired to

protect you from terrorists

it's estimated that you were a hundred

thirty times more likely to be killed by

the police and by a terrorist

that's because people do not make the

decision based on facts and statistics

but usually they make it on news and

stories and stuff they hear from other

people

it's way scarier to die from a terrorist

attack in a falling coconut and because

of this usually the news won't cover it

because there's not much money in it

number three is the bandwagon effect

people do or believe in something not

because they actually do believe it but

because that's what the rest of the

world believes in

in other words following the rest

without thinking if you've ever heard

someone say well if your friends jump

off a bridge would you then that someone

is accusing you of the bandwagon effect

it happens a lot with us

I mean a lot of people vote for a

certain candidate in the election

because he's the most popular or because

they want to be part of the majority it

happens a lot in the stock market too if

someone starts buying a stock because

they think it's going to rise then a lot

of other people are going to start

picking the stock as well it can also

happen during meetings if everyone

agrees on something you are more likely

to agree with him on that object in

management the opposite of this is

called the group think and it's

something companies try very hard to

turn because if nine out of ten people

agree on something for the last person

doesn't and won't speak up

it could squelch a great idea number

four is choice supportive bias so people

have the tendency to defend themselves

because it was their choice

just because I made the choice it must

be right for example let's say a person

buys an apple product

let's say it's a macbook instead of a

windows pc well he's more likely to

ignore the downsides or the faults of

the apple computer while pointing out

the downsides of the pc he's more likely

to notice the advantages of the apple

computer not the windows computer i

would someone point out that they made a

bad decision

well let's say you have a dog you think

it's awesome because it's your dog

although it might poop on the floor

every now and then the same goes for

political candidates not the pooping

part but they both may suck but one of

the lesser of two evils maybe more right

in your mind because you voted for them

number five confirmation bias we tend to

listen to information that confirms what

we already know or even interpret the

information that we receive in a way

that confirms the current information

that we already have let's say that your

friend believes that suites are

unhealthy this is generally a pretty

broad belief he will only focus on the

information that confirms what we

already know is more likely to click on

videos that confirmed that belief or

read articles that support his argument

he doesn't go through and type positive

health effects of increasing blood

glucose levels or positive effects of

eating a bowl of ice cream

no he will instinctively go to google

and type in how bad is sugar for you the

confirmation bias is a very dangerous in

scientific situations and

actually one of the most widely

committed cognitive biases number six

the ostrich bias this is the decision or

rather subconscious decision to ignore

the negative information it may also be

an indication we only want to consider

the positive aspects of something

this goes beyond are only looking for

the positive information but this is

when there is negative information and

we choose to ignore it as an outlier

sometimes even when we have a problem we

try to ignore it thinking it will go

away

let's say you have an assignment to do

it's not something that you really want

to do so you may just keep on

procrastinating with it because you're

minding said it will go away or is

solved by ignoring it

smokers usually they know it's bad for

their health but a lot of them keep

ignoring the negative implications of

cigarettes thinking it will not damage

them or might stop them before anything

serious will happen because they

consider themselves in our wire to avoid

finding out negative information we just

stop looking for it

this could be a serious crime in many

scientific research laboratories and

basically promotes ignorance number 7

outcome bias we tend to judge the

efficacy of a decision based primarily

on how things turn out after decision is

made we rarely examine the conditions

that existed at the time of the decision

choosing instead to evaluate performance

solely or mostly on whether the end

result was positive or not in other

words you decide whether an action is

right or wrong based on the outcome this

goes a little bit into consequentialism

but it goes hand-in-hand with the

hindsight bias let's say there's a

manager who wants to take the decision

his team and the data are telling him to

make one decision but his gut is telling

him to make another decision

well he goes ahead and makes the

decision that has got told him to do and

then in the end it was the right

decision

does that mean it's actually better to

trust your gut rather than listen your

team who is advising you based on facts

and statistics

well that's what the outcome biases you

take the decision and bass the

effectiveness of your decision on the

outcome even if it was luck

now this is bad logical thinking and

will actually lead you to ruin thinking

and bad outcomes in the long run number

8 overconfidence sometimes you get too

confident and start taking decisions not

based on facts but based on your opinion

or gut because you have been correct so

many times in the past for example you

are a stock trader and you pick five

stocks in a couple years all of them

turn out to be successful and profitable

it increases your confidence to a point

where you can start believing that

whatever start you pick will be

successful it's quite dangerous because

you might stop looking at the facts and

solely rely on your opinion

check out the gamblers fallacy if you

want more information on this just

because you flip the coin five times and

it landed on heads doesn't mean that the

next time there's more than fifty

percent chance of it landing on ahead

again ego is the enemy is a great book

about this bias and i just made a book

review on it

number nine placebo bias when you

believe something will have a certain

effect on you then it will actually

cause that effect for instance you are

sick and the doctor gives you a certain

medicine even if that medicine does not

actually help you even if it's just made

of sugar you believe that it will help

you and it actually causes you to

recover quicker this might not sound

very logical but dozens of experiments

have proven this

that's why if you realize positive

people usually have positive life and

vice-versa the way you think is super

important and we've hit on this in

previous videos for the same reason a

lot of personal development books say

that if you really believe something you

will eventually achieve it or at least

find a way to achieve it because the

placebo effect will give you the

motivation that need the mind truly is a

powerful thing and this actually isn't

always bad thinking in fact you can use

a placebo effect in our advantage if we

use it wisely

there's actually a reverse of this and

it's called the nocebo and this is when

it is native number ten survivorship

bias this bias is when you are judging

something based on the surviving

information let me give you an example

here there are a lot of articles titled

like five things millionaires do every

morning

does that mean doing those things every

morning will make you a millionaire know

there are tons of people who did them

and didn't become a millionaire but

there are also tons of people who did

them and did become a millionaire

so these articles are primarily based on

the ones who survived and reject all

other people to do the same thing but

did not become millionaires

another example is to say that buildings

in an ancient city were built using

extreme engineering because they lasted

so long

this is a bad conclusion because you

aren't considering what ratio of

buildings were built to how many that

lasted

you're only seeing the ones that lasted

thousands of years of weathering when

the other ninety percent I've already

washed away it's hard to know what you

don't know

number 11 selective perception i like

this one

selective perception is a form of bias

that causes people to perceive messages

and actions according to their frame of

reference using selective perception

people tend to overlook and forget that

contradicts our beliefs or expectations

let's say for example you're a smoker

and you're a big fan of soccer

you're more likely to ignore

the negative advertisements about

cigarettes because since you are already

smoking you have this perception that

it's okay to smoke but there's an

advertisement about soccer you are more

likely to notice it because you have a

very positive perception about it

this is actually something really

interesting and has to do with how you

perceive the world due to your

subconscious mind and what it filters

out the last one is called the blind

spot bias if I asked you how biased you

are you would probably say that you are

less biased than the average person and

you are more likely to base your

judgment on facts and statistics and

that's what's known as a blind spot bias

or the bias bias your bias because you

think that you are less biased than

everyone else

for example i guess it's something to my

teacher and the next week she gave me a

good grade on a test if you ask her

whether she was biased when she gave me

that grade the answer will be that the

gift never affected her decision when

marking my paper but if you ask her if

other teachers are biased when students

give them gifts she will say yes

in most cases and that's what the blind

spot biases i really enjoyed creating

this video but most of the content was

curated by my friend is gone off he's

got a channel similar to mine and I'd

like you to check it out here or in the

description i hope you guys enjoyed this

video and learn something if you want

more valuables like this check out my

channel and subscribe thanks for

watching