Critical thinking cognitive biases

The inclination to see past events as being more predictable than they actually were; also called the "I-knew-it-all-along" effect. Humor effect That humorous items are more easily remembered than non-humorous ones, which might be explained by the distinctiveness of humor, the increased cognitive processing time to understand the humor, or the emotional arousal caused by the humor.

Critical thinking cognitive biases


Promoting Science and Critical Thinking

I think this has to do with how the page has organically evolved over the years. There are specific cognitive biases that are well-known and to some degree well-understood by a good percentage.

He took the full list of and proceeded as follows … I started with the raw list of the biases and added them all to a spreadsheet, then took another pass removing duplicates, and grouping similar biases like bizarreness effect and humor effect or complementary biases like optimism bias and pessimism bias.


Critical thinking - Wikipedia


Every cognitive bias is there for a reason — primarily to save our brains time or energy. He digs into each in detail. We face information overload so we need effective filters to enable us to handle that. We all carry within our heads specific conclusions about many things, for example politics and religion.

Confirmation Bias is a filter that enables us to ignore anything that conflicts with our pre-existing beliefs.

Critical thinking cognitive biases

To work a specific example, there is a Facebook meme that contains a picture of Donald Trump along with a quote from him saying that Republicans are the dumbest group, so if he was to ever run for office then he would run as a Republican candidate. As you might imagine, many non-Trump folks share that because it strikes a chord, and of course Trump supporters will naturally discard it as bullshit.

Almost every single thing asserted by Trump or Trump supporters regarding Hillary is pure myth. You agree of course, but is that a fact or is that confirmation bias? I did not specify which, you simply opted for one and assumed that is the one I also had in mind, and so is that also confirmation bias?

If these Biases are useful tools, then what is the problem? When I first encountered the meme, I immediately embraced it as true and shared it, only to later discover the mistake I had made.

Cognitive biases

Yes, the irony is not lost on me that a meme criticising a chap who mostly promotes myths as fact is itself a myth. We all have these biases, not because we are fundamentally flawed, but because they do often yield a distinct advantage.

Up pops a candidate who is clearly not perceived to be part of the establishment that has damaged them, so they latch on for emotional reasons. Eventually the realisation that he will do nothing for them will finally sink in. It might take a day, or perhaps a week or maybe even a month, but it will happen, the dawning realisation that they have been conned once again.

Confirmation Bias then dominates and so facts that conflict with the narrative are discarded while myths the confirm it are embraced as truth.

The point is this — understanding human cognitive biases will help you to appreciate why people can be blinded to reality. Knowing what can happen is a useful tool to help work through such issues not just in others, but also within ourselves.rows · Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, .

February 9, Critical Thinking, Psychology cognitive biases, fallacies Robert M Ellis There are a great many different fallacies and a great many different cognitive biases: probably enough to keep me going for years if I was to discuss one each week on this blog series. Cognitive Bias – Buster’s cheat sheet This entry was posted in Critical Thinking psychology and tagged Buster's cheat sheet cognitive bias on November 3, by Dave I’ve seen a chart being shared on social media that I do openly confess I like, so I’m highlighting it here.


But like I said: Before we get into critical thinking, cognitive biases, and logical fallacies, we need a detailed understanding of five of the most important core principles upon which all critical thinking and higher intelligence rests upon.

List of cognitive biases - Wikipedia

(intro music) My name is Laurie Santos. I teach psychology at Yale University, and today I want to talk to you about reference dependence and loss aversion. This lecture is part of a series on cognitive biases. Imagine that you're a doctor heading a medical team that's trying to fight a new strain.

3 Cognitive Biases That Alter Your ThinkingPick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement