Cognitive Biases Examples

Why This Matters

Cognitive biases aren't just fascinating quirks of the human mind—they're central to understanding how cognition actually works in the real world. In Introduction to Cognitive Science, you're being tested on how mental processes like attention, memory, reasoning, and decision-making can systematically deviate from rational ideals. These biases reveal the underlying architecture of human thought: our reliance on heuristics, our limited cognitive resources, and the shortcuts our brains take to navigate complex environments efficiently.

When you study cognitive biases, you're really studying the boundaries and trade-offs of human information processing. Exam questions will ask you to identify which cognitive mechanism explains a given bias, compare biases that stem from similar processes, and apply these concepts to real-world scenarios. Don't just memorize definitions—know what each bias tells us about how the mind organizes, retrieves, and weighs information.

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Biases in Information Search and Interpretation

These biases affect how we seek out, filter, and make sense of new information. The underlying mechanism involves selective attention and motivated reasoning—our cognitive systems aren't neutral processors but actively shape what we notice and how we interpret it.

Confirmation Bias

• Selective search for belief-consistent information—we actively seek evidence that supports what we already think while avoiding contradictory data
• Memory distortion plays a key role; we recall confirming evidence more easily than disconfirming evidence
• Reinforces misconceptions over time, making this bias central to understanding belief perseverance and resistance to attitude change

Framing Effect

• Presentation format alters decisions—identical information leads to different choices depending on whether it's framed as a gain or loss
• Demonstrates that cognition isn't purely logical; context and language activate different mental representations
• Tversky and Kahneman's research on this effect is foundational to behavioral economics and prospect theory

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Memory-Based Heuristics

These biases arise from how we retrieve information from memory to make judgments. The key mechanism is accessibility—whatever comes to mind most easily disproportionately influences our thinking.

Availability Heuristic

• Ease of recall substitutes for actual probability—if examples come to mind quickly, we judge events as more likely
• Recency and vividness inflate perceived frequency; dramatic plane crashes feel more common than mundane car accidents
• Adaptive shortcut in many contexts, but fails when media exposure or personal experience skews what's memorable

Hindsight Bias

• "I knew it all along" phenomenon—after learning an outcome, we misremember our prior predictions as more accurate than they were
• Memory reconstruction is the mechanism; we update our memories to be consistent with new information
• Problematic for learning from mistakes because it creates illusion that outcomes were predictable, reducing motivation to improve forecasting

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Anchoring and Adjustment Failures

These biases occur when initial information disproportionately shapes subsequent judgments. The mechanism involves insufficient adjustment—we start from a reference point and fail to move far enough away from it.

Anchoring Bias

• First information dominates—even arbitrary or irrelevant numbers influence subsequent numerical estimates
• Adjustment is cognitively effortful, so we tend to stop adjusting before reaching an unbiased estimate
• Robust across domains including salary negotiations, pricing judgments, and legal sentencing decisions

Sunk Cost Fallacy

• Past investments irrationally influence future decisions—we continue failing projects because we've already invested resources
• Anchored to prior commitment rather than evaluating current costs and benefits objectively
• Violates rational choice theory, which says only future consequences should matter for decisions

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Self-Assessment and Metacognitive Errors

These biases involve faulty evaluation of our own knowledge, abilities, and predictions. The underlying mechanism is poor metacognition—our ability to accurately monitor our own cognitive processes is limited.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

• Low performers overestimate; high performers underestimate—the skills needed to perform well are the same skills needed to recognize good performance
• Metacognitive deficit is the core problem; lacking expertise means lacking the tools to evaluate expertise
• Double burden of incompetence—poor performers are both unskilled and unaware of being unskilled

Overconfidence Bias

• Systematic overestimation of accuracy—people's confidence in their judgments exceeds their actual correctness rate
• Calibration studies show experts often perform only slightly better than chance while expressing high certainty
• Distinct from Dunning-Kruger; overconfidence can affect experts and novices alike, while Dunning-Kruger specifically involves skill deficits

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Social and Emotional Influences on Cognition

These biases show how social context and emotional valence shape information processing. The mechanism involves the integration of affective and social information into what might otherwise seem like purely cognitive judgments.

Bandwagon Effect

• Social proof drives belief adoption—we use others' behavior as information about what's correct or desirable
• Cognitive efficiency explanation: following the crowd is a reasonable heuristic when we lack direct information
• Can produce groupthink and information cascades where early adopters disproportionately influence later decisions

Negativity Bias

• Negative information weighted more heavily—losses loom larger than equivalent gains; criticism stings more than praise pleases
• Evolutionary explanation suggests asymmetric costs; missing a threat is more dangerous than missing an opportunity
• Affects attention, memory, and decision-making—negative stimuli capture attention faster and are remembered longer

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Quick Reference Table

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Self-Check Questions

1. Both the availability heuristic and hindsight bias involve memory distortion—what distinguishes when each bias operates (prospective vs. retrospective judgment)?

2. A student continues studying for a major they hate because they've "already put in two years." Which bias explains this, and why does it violate principles of rational decision-making?

3. Compare and contrast the Dunning-Kruger effect and overconfidence bias. Under what conditions would you expect each to occur, and what do both reveal about human metacognition?

4. If a researcher wants to demonstrate that how a problem is presented matters more than its objective content, which bias should they study? Design a simple experiment to test it.

5. Which two biases best illustrate that human cognition relies on mental shortcuts (heuristics) that are often adaptive but can lead to systematic errors? Explain the trade-off between efficiency and accuracy that each demonstrates.