140 Cognitive Biases You Should Know

post by André Ferretti (andre-ferretti) · 2022-04-09T17:15:27.239Z · LW · GW · 7 comments

Contents

  My favourite biases
  What you can do
None
7 comments

I'm excited to announce my list of ∼140 cognitive biases.

Become aware of your biases. Make better decisions. I adapted most biases from Wikipedia's list of cognitive biases. Download my biases as Anki flashcards here.

My favourite biases

Backfire Effect 
You reject evidence opposing your opinion, and you strengthen your original opinion.

Curse of Knowledge 
You assume that the listener has the background knowledge to understand you.

Dilution Effect 
You under-utilise useful information when useless information is present.

False Consensus Effect 
You see your actions as more common than they are.

Google Effect 
You forget information that you can find online.

Illusion of Transparency 
You overestimate how much others are aware of your mental state.

Overjustification Effect 
You have less intrinsic motivation to act if you are externally rewarded for it.

Self-Reference Effect 
You remember information better if you are related to it.

Zeigarnik Effect 
You remember unfinished tasks better than finished tasks.

What you can do

7 comments

Comments sorted by top scores.

comment by romeostevensit · 2022-04-09T18:04:58.772Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

The ones I have found most important in my own journey:

The fallacy of one cause, manifests as a bias towards monocausal explanations which is an appeal to simplicity, related to the certainty effect as well.

Attribute substitution: these fly by unconsciously all the time

Inaction bias: doing nothing is treated as a special action that avoids blame

Internal illusion of transparency (introspective transparency illusion)

Homeostatic prior: automatically work towards maintaining things as they are including unpleasant things

Scope neglect

Replies from: andre-ferretti
↑ comment by André Ferretti (andre-ferretti) · 2022-04-09T21:24:33.324Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thanks for the insightful comment! I added these four biases to the Doc:

Single Cause Fallacy
You think there's one cause when there are many.

Attribute Substitution
You value insurance on terrorism higher than on death of any kind.

Introspection Illusion
You confidently but falsely explain the origin of your beliefs.

Status Quo Bias (aka homeostatic prior)
You want things to stay as they are. 

Quote for you on inaction bias: "The mistakes that have been most extreme in Berkshire's history are mistakes of omission." -Warren Buffett

comment by jmh · 2022-04-09T22:06:49.145Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I might be a bit off base on this but . . . 

Is there a major named bias that reflects the thought (I was about to say "fact" but seems a very wrong word to use given the nature of this comment) that one's own beliefs and knowledge set is actually the hypothesis that is being tested in real time? Our believes and knowledge are not just the check against the other views and external view.

Seems that is a very Bayesian view but also something of the characteristic of most other biases: our belief in our self, in our experts, in our peer group and class, etc. Seems like if we make a core rule of asking "What do I need to update here?" a lot of the other bias problems diminish.

Would "The bias of no self-skepticism" be a good term? (Or is that already in the list I have not looked at yet!)

Replies from: andre-ferretti
↑ comment by André Ferretti (andre-ferretti) · 2022-04-10T08:16:24.355Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Do you mean confirmation bias, or implicit bias? I cannot find 'bias of no self-skepticism' on Google.

Replies from: jmh
↑ comment by jmh · 2022-04-10T21:35:27.933Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I would have laughed if you could find that phrase on Google.

What I was getting at was the number of named biases. I suspect many are similar and possible stem from some common underlying cause. I wonder just how many can be explained by people not simply viewing their one beliefs and assumption about their "knowledge" and set of facts without sufficient skepticism.

If we can explain a number of these named biases with a common root then we're closer to having the gear that is driving the bad thinking than if we just labelled several items in some common set as if they are really different.

Replies from: andre-ferretti
↑ comment by André Ferretti (andre-ferretti) · 2022-04-16T21:17:26.852Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

This bias infographic shows you biases grouped by common root: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/all-188-cognitive-biases.html

Replies from: jmh
↑ comment by jmh · 2022-04-17T00:57:49.214Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thanks!