We tend to think that we have a lot of control over our decisions and how we think and what we do.
In reality, however, most of our decisions are made based on certain heuristics, otherwise known as generalized patters of decision-making that are, to a great degree, subconscious.
Let’s think of optical illusions for example.
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We have all seen illusions where two lines are shown.
When looking at the lines, we can see that they are clearly not the same in length.
But then the lines are re-positioned, or the surroundings are changed slightly, suddenly, its so easy to see that the lines are actually exactly the same size.
If we make these kind of mistakes with our eyes, something we spend so much time doing and are so good at, imagine the kind of mistakes we could be making when it comes to cognitive and complex tasks, something we are not so good at, such as financial planing or risk analysis.
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I want to share with you guys a few human psychological biases which happen and can alter our lives daily based on how we perceive them:
1. Anchoring bias
People are over-reliant on the first piece of information they hear. In a salary negotiation, whoever makes the first offer establishes a range of reasonable possibilities in each person’s mind. That is why the first impression or your overall persona can be really hard to change once you have established it in someone’s mind.
2. Availability heuristic
People overestimate the importance of information that is available to them. A person might argue that smoking is not unhealthy because they know someone who lives to 100 and smoked three packs a day.
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3. Bandwagon effect
The probability of one person adopting a belief increases based on the number of people who hold that belief. This is a powerful form of group think and is reason why meetings are often unproductive.
4. Blind-spot bias
Failing to recognize your own cognitive biases is a bias in itself. People notice cognitive and motivational biases much more in others than in themselves.
5. Choice-supportive bias
When you choose something, you tend to feel positive about it, even if that choice has flaws. Like how you think your dog is awesome – even if it bites people every once in a while.
6. Clustering illusion
This is the tendency to see patterns in random events. It is the key to various gambling fallacies like the idea that red is more or less likely to turn up on a roulette table after a string of reds.
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7. Confirmation bias
We tend to listen to information that confirms our preconceptions – one of the many reasons its so hard to have an intelligent conversation about climate change.
8. Conservatism bias
Where people favor prior evidence over new evidence or information hat has emerged. People were slow to accept that the Earth was round because they maintained their earlier understanding that the planet was flat.