Cognitive Biases - Research and Example by

Anchoring bias (Jason)

s20346_2 — 2025-09-22 01:57:28 UTC

Anchoring bias occurs when people rely too much on pre-existing information or the first information they find when making decisions. For example, if you first see a T-shirt that costs $1,200 – then see a second one that costs $100 – you're prone to see the second shirt as cheap. Relating it to knowledge, it could lead to skewed perceptions for example something really big could be interpreted as small for someone who just came from a huge mountain. Moreover, it could cause people to reject new information that is true. This may lead to outdated knowledge. Lastly, they would not revise the first information sufficiently to know the extent to the truthfulness of the knowledge.

Confirmation Bias (Gabriel)

student15074 — 2025-09-22 01:59:49 UTC

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out and prefer information that supports our preexisting beliefs. For example, conservative politicians may tend to overvalue facts that support the conservatives while simultaneously undervaluing policies that support the liberals.

Blind-spot bias(Jeremy)

2025-09-22 02:01:19 UTC

Blind-spot bias refers to when a person recognizes the impact of biases on the decision and judgement of others while ignores that himself might also be affected by biases. For example, one might point out that his opponent during a debate is affected by the information cocoon on the internet, but thinks that his own views are comprehensive and unaffected.

Bandwagon effect (Athena Fan)

2025-09-22 02:01:51 UTC

The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon where people adopt certain behaviors, styles, or attitudes simply because others are doing so. It is driven by a desire to conform and a presumption that the popularity of a choice makes it correct or desirable. This effect often influences decision-making in areas like consumer purchases, politics, and social trends.

e.g. During learning, people may learn by just following others' ideas or the majority instead of thinking by oneself because of bandwagon effect.

Choice-supportive bias (Hannah)

2025-09-22 02:03:11 UTC

Definition: the cognitive tendency to remember the positive aspects of a chosen option more vividly while downplaying or forgetting its negative aspects, and conversely, to remember the negative aspects of rejected options more than their positive ones.

Example: Chemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced the discovery of cold fusion. However, they dismissed the critical evidence against it and attributed failed replication attempts to other scientists' incompetence rather than flaws in their own chosen method.

Information bias (Lexi)

2025-09-22 02:03:46 UTC

Information bias, also known as measurement bias, is

a systematic error that distorts research findings and decision-making by leading to the inaccurate collection, measurement, or interpretation of data. It affects a wide range of fields, including scientific research, business, and personal judgment.

Survivorship Bias (Caimo)

2025-09-22 02:03:48 UTC

The tendency of people to focus only on the “survivors” of a process while overlooking those who failed.

e.g. "Its okay to drop out of college, look at Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, they turned out great!"

Recency bias (Dora)

2025-09-22 02:04:29 UTC

Recency bias is a cognitive bias that favors recent events over historic ones, in other words, giving greater importance to the most recent event. It is based on memory.

For example, a worker had a perfect record for months, but his last report contained several errors. The boss now considered him careless and began meticulously reviewing all of his submissions. This single recent mistake completely overshadowed his long history of reliable work in the boss's mind.

Overconfidence

2025-09-22 02:05:03 UTC

Overconfidence bias is the tendency for people to overestimate their own abilities, knowledge, or the accuracy of their predictions, often leading to risky decisions or errors in judgment.

Examples

A driver believes they are “much better than average” at driving and speeds through traffic, ignoring safety rules.

A student skims a few chapters and is sure they’ll ace the test, only to score poorly.

Outcome bias (Rebecca)

2025-09-22 02:05:03 UTC

Outcome bias usually occurs when there is an error when evaluating the quality of a decision when you already know the outcome of the decision. For example, a doctor would be praised if they saved a patient with a very risky operation, but could also be criticized if the patient died.

Conservatism Bias (Caimo)

2025-09-22 02:05:04 UTC

This occurs when people cling too strongly to their prior beliefs and underreact to new evidence or information. Instead of adjusting beliefs proportionally to the strength of new data, they make smaller updates than rational analysis would suggest.

e.g. You’ve always believed a certain restaurant is the best in town. However, recently their service has been declining. Though after having two or three disappointing meals there, you still tell people it’s great, because you don’t fully update your opinion based on the new experiences.

Pro-innovation Bias (Lareina)

2025-09-22 02:05:22 UTC

Pro-innovation bias is the tendency to overly favor and promote new innovations, often with excessive optimism about their benefits, while underestimating or ignoring their limitations, risks, and potential negative consequences.

For example: In agriculture, there is a bias toward new industrial techniques and genetically modified crops that promise higher yields, which could cause people to overlook traditional, time-tested practices that prioritize soil health and biodiversity.

Clustering illusion (Olivia)

2025-09-22 02:06:10 UTC

The clustering illusion is the tendency to erroneously consider the inevitable "streaks" or "clusters" arising in small samples from random distributions to be non-random.

e.d. During the pursuiting of knowledge, people might link two incidents together and treat it as a fact. However, these two events may not be relevant at all, and people will still assume that it is a fact that there's a causal relationship between them.

The Ostrich Effect (Donald)

2025-09-23 12:07:22 UTC

There is a popular myth that ostriches stick their heads into the sand when distressed. This kind of avoidance is what inspired the naming of the "Ostrich Effect." It refers to a cognitive bias where one avoids possibly negative information or information that may lead to psychological discomfort.

For instance, a student who believed that they performed badly on a test may refuse to check their score. After receiving their paper, they may insist on putting it upside down on the table, a way of coping with their anxiety.

Salience (Donald)

2025-09-23 12:16:07 UTC

Often, we uncontrollably and automatically focus on the most visible, obvious, or contrasting information. This is known as the salience bias, and is often explained as a biological mechanism beneficiary for survival.

In any form of advertising or propaganda, for instance, the salience bias could potentially be used to bring attention to information that stands out, changing the audience's impression of it.

Zero-Risk Bias (Donald)

2025-09-23 12:31:59 UTC

When we face a problem, our discomfort leads to a need to eliminate risk. There is often a question of whether to totally eliminate risk in part of the problem, or to partially eliminate risk in the problem as a whole. The zero-risk bias describes our tendency to eliminate a small risk completely, instead of simply mitigating a larger risk.

Psychology Today suggests that this can explain irrational acts such as toilet paper theft during COVID-19.

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/stretching-theory/202003/is-zero-risk-bias-impairing-your-crisis-response