Heuristics & Shortcuts
This bias involves relying on examples that pop easily into your mind, even if they aren’t representative.
What is the availability heuristic?
This is the tendency to believe you are less biased than other people.
What is the blindspot bias?
Preferring sources, people, or groups that validate or echo what you already believe.
What is confirmation bias?
This bias explains why people may “see what they want to see” when interpreting new information.
What is selective perception?
This bias explains why the “first number you hear” influences your judgments — for example, pricing in restaurants.
What is anchoring bias?
This is retroactively convincing yourself that your chosen option was better than the alternatives.
What is choice-supportive bias?
Strong loyalty to your own tribe — sometimes reinforced by oxytocin — even when it conflicts with your own beliefs.
What is in-group bias?
Favoring the middle option when presented with three choices — not too cheap, not too expensive — is an example of this bias.
What is anchoring bias or the relativity trap?
Believing that your luck “has to change soon” during a coin toss or in investing is an example of this fallacy.
What is the gambler’s fallacy?
This bias makes people attribute too much importance to positive outcomes or negative outcomes of a decision rather than the quality of the reasoning behind it.
What is outcome bias?
This effect explains why people are more likely to adopt ideas simply because “everyone else is doing it.”
What is the bandwagon effect?
When a doctor is judged harshly because a risky treatment failed—despite rational reasoning—this bias is at work.
What is outcome bias?
This bias occurs when you ignore unpleasant or threatening information — like refusing to check your bank balance.
What is the ostrich bias?
This bias leads individuals to overestimate their abilities, talents, or knowledge.
What is overconfidence bias?
Ignoring evidence that contradicts your worldview because it causes emotional discomfort.
What is selective perception bias?
This bias explains why subjects in an experiment might report improvement simply because they believe they should.
What is response bias?
This leads people with little knowledge in a domain to believe they know far more than they do.
What is the Dunning–Kruger effect?
Reacting to a vivid, negative event—like a co‑worker’s past mistake—while ignoring more relevant long-term performance.
What is the availability heuristic?
Generalizing from the visible cases while ignoring those that didn’t survive or weren’t selected — like only studying successful companies.
What is survivorship bias?
A student trusts scientific findings only from people who share their political beliefs.
What is confirmation bias?