Cognitive Biases in Psychology

Cognitive Biases and Their Effects

• Confirmation Bias: Tendency to search for and interpret information that supports existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory data.
• Anchoring Bias: Influence of the first piece of information encountered on decision-making; initial information serves as a reference point.
• Availability Heuristic: Estimation of the importance of information is based on what is readily or recently available, rather than comprehensive data.
• Hindsight Bias: Belief that past events were predictable, leading to an illusion of foresight after the events have occurred.
• Self-Serving Bias: Positive outcomes are attributed to personal qualities, while negative outcomes are blamed on external factors, protecting self-esteem.

Group Dynamics and Perceptions

• Ingroup Bias: Preference for and favorable treatment of members within one's own group compared to outsiders.
• Stereotyping: Making generalized beliefs about a group of people based on limited observations, often leading to inaccuracies.
• Halo Effect: Positive perception of a person based on one admirable trait, which skews overall judgment of the individual.
• Horn Effect: Negative judgment of an individual based on one undesirable trait, overshadowing other characteristics.

Unconscious Influences and Reactions

• Implicit Bias: Subconscious attitudes and stereotypes that can influence thoughts, actions, and decisions without conscious awareness.
• Cognitive Dissonance: The uneasy feeling arising from holding conflicting beliefs, values, or emotional responses, prompting efforts to reconcile the disparities.
• Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to prioritize personal traits over situational influences when explaining others' behavior, leading to misinterpretation of actions.

This quiz explores various cognitive biases that affect decision-making and perception. Learn about Confirmation Bias, Anchoring Bias, Availability Heuristic, and Hindsight Bias, and how these biases can shape our understanding of information. Test your knowledge on the concepts and implications of these psychological phenomena.