
List of cognitive biases - mrb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
======
vezzy-fnord
I wonder if a "cognitive bias bias" exists, where a rational solution is
discounted in favor of a more inferior one due to falsely attributing your
initial solution as a cognitive bias, even though it is perfectly appropriate
for the situation at hand?

~~~
zacharypinter
There was a great post on lesswrong.com about this:

[http://lesswrong.com/lw/he/knowing_about_biases_can_hurt_peo...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/he/knowing_about_biases_can_hurt_people/)

~~~
alok-g
Very interesting. I have always wondered if teaching people about cognitive
biases can help them avoid them. On the very least, I am convinced that this
may not be as easy as I was thinking.

Some relevant excerpts from the cited article:

>> If you're irrational to start with, having more knowledge can hurt you.

>> I've seen people severely messed up by their own knowledge of biases.

>> You can think of people who fit this description, right?

This makes sense now. If the brain behind is close to a random baseline in
interpreting statements, how can you feed more statements (about interpreting)
to expect a positive outcome.

A question still remains: Would it help to teach people of these biases when
they are kids.

~~~
leoc
The impression I keep getting is that (with due respect to "the power of the
context"
[http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2004001_power.pdf](http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2004001_power.pdf))
teaching someone about fallacies automatically makes them about 15 IQ
stupider.

~~~
sitkack
I am not sure what you are getting at. That the PARC people were too deep in
awesomeness to productize it? Just grabbing at straws I haven't read the whole
article.

~~~
leoc
I'm referring to the maxim often repeated by Alan Kay that "[point of
view|context|a change of context] is worth [40|80] IQ".

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naiyt
I sure am glad I don't suffer from any of these cognitive biases. I'm much
better than the average person at identifying and squashing them in myself.
Dunning-Kruger in particular!

~~~
acheron
Everywhere I look I see people falling for confirmation bias. Just as I
suspected.

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geekfactor
Much prior HN discussion on this article.

[https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=%22lis...](https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=%22list+of+cognitive+biases%22&start=0)

I guess the duplicate URL checker has a time-out period?

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goo
If you like learning about cognitive biases (I certainly do!), may I recommend
spending some time with some of the articles on lesswrong.com -- I find that
for me, sometimes reading online distracts me from work, so I have all of
Eliezer's work in e-book format which I read via kindle. Here it is:
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/72m/an_epub_of_eliezers_blog_posts/](http://lesswrong.com/lw/72m/an_epub_of_eliezers_blog_posts/)

------
maaku
Heuristics & Biases is a great book with more detail:

[http://www.amazon.com/Heuristics-Biases-Psychology-
Intuitive...](http://www.amazon.com/Heuristics-Biases-Psychology-Intuitive-
Judgment/dp/0521796792)

------
arunabh
Relevant : Thou shalt not commit logical fallacy !!
[https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/](https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/)

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lhnz
The bias here is the belief that bias is a bad word.

~~~
valtron
That's because biases are, by their definition, _not_ correct.

~~~
naiyt
Actually, I don't think that's true. As a noun:

> prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with
> another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.

As a verb:

> cause to feel or show inclination or prejudice for or against someone or
> something.

Biases may often be lead to incorrect assumptions about things, but I'm fairly
certain that a bias doesn't have to be incorrect by it's very nature. Say that
someone I love is on trial for some sort of crime. My natural bias would be to
believe that they are innocent (unless I absolutely knew otherwise). Just
because I'm biased towards their innocence doesn't automatically mean they are
guilty.

Perhaps I misunderstood you though.

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jostmey
I am so glad to see this list! Although we are intelligent beings, we emerged
from the wilderness, molded by eons of Natural Selection. It is naive to think
that our intellect is pure, that it has somehow emerged uncolored by our
origins. More likely, our minds are highly biased and carefully calibrated
toward protecting our own individual survival. This is a list of what makes us
humans. Someday humanity might create artificial forms of intelligence, but it
will no more resemble our own intelligence than a plane resembles a bird. This
is a list of all the mental quirks that define us.

------
lemming
A really interesting article on how this relates to being an engineer is
[http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/10/25/on-being-a-senior-
engi...](http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/10/25/on-being-a-senior-engineer). At
the time I read it I found it really interesting how few of the skills he
talks about are technical - they're all "soft" skills. He has a section on
cognitive biases and how they affect development.

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zxcvvcxz
Relating to entrepreneurship, the ambiguity effect seems particularly
dangerous. There is no such thing as having perfect information. In fact, the
more you know, the less opportunity and upside you can have in a venture. Why?
Because the unknown equates to risk, and risk correlates with reward.

Not knowing enough is one of the major excuses to avoid starting a venture.
Acting optimally on imperfect and limited information, on the other hand, is
an entrepreneurial trait.

------
heydenberk
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identifiable_victim_effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identifiable_victim_effect)

------
nothiggs
I'm a bit skeptical regarding the weight of these biases on everyday life.
Looking at all these biases, and the fact that no one is actually free of them
(except perhaps some enlightened few) would suggest that we're all making
choices which most of the time are based on assumptions that have little
anchoring in reality. If this were so, shouldn't there have been total chaos
here on earth?

~~~
ori_b
As heuristics, for familiar cases, these cognitive biases are acceptable; Why
would you expect chaos from that, instead of expecting suboptimal results? And
yes, we definitely see suboptimal results.

~~~
nothiggs
I guess it depends to how detached from reality the average choice is when
affected by these biases, and obviously it's not worse than suboptimal as you
said, otherwise we would not be getting anywhere. I guess just viewing that
large number of biases made me feel like we're lucky to get through the day,
let alone make progress as a civilisation :)

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krrishd
Barney Stinson had pointed out the cheerleader effect before, I never thought
that it could actually be a thing...

~~~
kosei
I won't believe it until it has a more formal name. "Organizational Attraction
Bias", perhaps. :)

~~~
krrishd
Yeah, I feel like half the biases listed are actually phenomenon that are
quite noticeable, just referred to with more casual terminology. Of course,
statisticians wouldn't want to work with arguable terms so they have to
"jargon-ify" the words a bit.

------
albedo
Check out the Center for Applied Rationality
([http://rationality.org/](http://rationality.org/)) for workshops on
overcoming cognitive biases, building habits, achieving your goals, making
better decisions, etc. It's a non-profit that my friends are running.

------
akama
The google effect is a very interesting one that I have noticed happening to
myself. It is interesting to know that it is happening to other people.

~~~
alok-g
While it is a memory bias in the sense that having a better memory is better
than depending on Google, in practice I know that I have limited memory and so
am better of remembering those things that are hard to find via Google [1]. I
frequently don't remember other peoples phone numbers anymore for example
because my phone remembers them, AND, I believe I am using this newly
available memory elsewhere. Like with all other finite resources, I think it
is about the production-possibility frontier [2] with memory as opposed to a
bias.

[1] One day interviewers will understand this and will stop asking questions
that are just one Google/StackOverflow search away. :-)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production%E2%80%93possibility_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production%E2%80%93possibility_frontier)

~~~
sb23
I work on an IT Helpdesk, and I fear that if my clients figure this out, I may
be kicked out the door :/

~~~
alok-g
I am guessing you are saying that you are often dependent on Google for
solving clients problems. If so, I think that is highly appreciated rather. Of
many IT help-desk professionals I have encountered (while working for big
companies), only two would actually spend time researching the problem at
hand. Others would just propose an OS reinstall or hardware replacement.

------
mrcactu5
many of these are natural defense mechanisms. if we acknowledged to ourselves
or to each other how shitty certain experiences are, how we treat each other /
get treated... isn't not even clear there would be an outlet anyway.

the good news is: if we don't like what we hear, we can choose one of these
many distortions to make the story fit our needs.

------
nkg
I would like to find the same kind of list about scientific experiments. What
would the list be ? Analogy, elimination...

------
jebblue
Reads like a list of how human beings are. Was there news somewhere in there?

------
tokipin
i heard about a book that discusses the various ways in which our brains fool
ourselves. i've never actually seen it though. anyone have a clue what book it
might be?

~~~
proctor
could it be "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow)

~~~
collin128
Correct. It's a great read. He weaves theory with storytelling better than any
other author I've read.

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mehwoot
I don't know why you'd link to wikipedia for this- I often see instances where
wikipedia has incorrect information.

~~~
kgarten
I don't know why you write a hacker news comment for this- I often see
instances where hacker news has incorrect information.

Your comment is pretty irrelevant, if you cannot find errors in the current
page. Yes Wikipedia is not accurate for some things, yet what's wrong with the
article posted? Also, although I might sound like a hypocrite, if you find
something wrong on wikipedia go ahead and change it.

~~~
alok-g
In fact, the grandparent comment is an example of one of the biases listed
there. :-)

~~~
jasonwocky
I'm guessing that was the point.

------
lhgaghl
I thought I was reading a list of typical programmer thought patterns.

