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Bias and prejudice are attitudes to be kept in hand, not attitudes to be avoided. — Charles Curtis
When I started learning about Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
I came to know about an interesting keyword called “BIAS”.
“Bias doesn’t come from AI algorithms; it comes from people.” — Cassie Kozyrkov
Before that, I didn’t know what to call when my behaviors changed with situations and people.
But now I know.
Bias has a high influence on human psychology.
So, let’s understand what Biases is.
Biases are persistent and widespread psychological tendencies that can be detrimental to objectivity and rationality. For example, one common bias is that women are weak (despite many being very strong).
TOP 50 COGNITIVE BIASES
Everyone should learn about these 50 Cognitive Biases:
1. Anchoring
How the first piece of information we see or hear tends to influence the terms or framing of an entire discussion.
2. Authority Bias
Putting too much reliance on authority figures.
3. Automation Bias
Over relying on automated systems like GPS or Autocorrect.
4. Availability Cascade
The more people believe and talk about something the more likely we are thinking it’s true.
5. Availability Heuristic
We worry more about rare airplane crashes than commonly occur much deadlier road accidents. People make judgments based on how easy it is to bring an example to mind (plane crashes are easy to remember).
6. Backfire Effect
Repeatedly mentioning a false belief to disprove it sometimes ends up making people believe it more.
7. Bandwagon Effect
Everyone likes to jump on a trendy bandwagon.
8. Barnum Effect (aka Forer Effect)
When told by some authority personally, individuals believe that vague, general statements are highly accurate for them.
9. Belief Bias
Judging an argument not on its own merits but by how plausible we think its conclusion is.
10. Ben Franklin Effect
We tend to think more positively about people once we’ve done a favor for them.
11. Blind Spot
It makes us think we don’t have as many biases as other people have.
12. Bystander Effect
Describes how people are less likely to take responsibility to act if they’re in a crowd.
13. Clustering Illusion
Tendency to “see” patterns in random data.
14. Confirmation Bias
We tend to look for and be more easily convinced by information that confirms our existing beliefs, especially in politics.
“It is harder to crack prejudice than an atom.” — Albert Einstein
15. Curse of Knowledge
Assuming everyone knows what, you know once you’ve learned something.
“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking.” — Leo Tolstoy
16. Diclinism
Romanticizing the past and thinking we live in an age of decline.
17. Defensive Attribution
Getting more upset at someone who commits a crime we feel we could have fallen victim to ourselves.
18. Dunning Kruger Effect
The less competent you are, the more confident you’re likely to be because you’re too incompetent to understand exactly how bad you are.
19. False Consensus
Thinking most people agree with you even when that’s not the case.
20. False Memory or Deja Vu
Mistaking something you imagined for a memory.
21. Framing
Drawing different conclusions from the same information depends on how it’s framed.
22. Fundamental Attribution Error
When someone else is late, it’s because they’re lazy. When you’re late, it is the traffic.
23. Gambler’s Fallacy
Thinking future probabilities are affected by past events. In sports, the hot hand.
24. Google Effect (aka Digital Amnesia)
You’re more likely to forget it if you can just Google it.
25. Groupthink
Going along with the group to avoid conflict. The downfall of many large organizations.
26. Halo Effect
Assuming a person has other positive traits because you observed they have one. Just because someone is confident or beautiful doesn’t mean they are also smart or kind.
27. Ikea Effect
We tend to overvalue things we had a hand in creating or assembling them.
28. Impostor Syndrome
Those with greater skills are often plagued with doubt.
29. In Group Favouritism or Racism
We tend to favor those in our in-group versus those who are different from us.
30. Just-World Hypothesis
The tendency to believe the world is just, so any observed injustice was deserved.
31. Law of Triviality or Bike-Shedding
Giving excessive weight to trivial issues while ignoring more important ones because you don’t know them or do not want to involve complexity.
32. Moral Luck
Assuming winners are morally superior.
33. Naive Cynicism
Thinking everyone else is just selfishly out for themselves.
34. Naive Realism
Thinking we have a better grasp of reality than everyone else.
35. Optimism
Always see the glass as half full.
36. Outgroup Homogeneity Bias
Seeing the diversity within the groups to which you belong but imagining people in groups to which you don’t belong are all alike.
37. Pessimism
Always see the glass as half empty.
38. Placebo Effect
If you think something will work, you’re likely to experience a small positive effect whether it does or not. Use in Medical research a lot.
39. Reactance
Doing the opposite of what you’re told when you feel bullied or backed into a corner.
40. Self-Serving Bias
Attributing all your successes to skill or effect and all your screw-ups to bad luck or a bad situation.
41. Spotlight Effect
Overestimating how much other people are thinking about you. I wrote a detailed article on spotlight effect.
42. Status Quo Bias
People tend to like things to stay the same, even if change would be beneficial.
43. Stereotyping
Just what it sounds like — having general beliefs about entire groups of people and applying them to individuals whether you know them or not.
44. Signal and Noise
Always look for the signal (meaningful information or data) rather than believe in the noise (random or meaningless information).
45. Sunk Cost Fallacy
Throwing good money (or effort) after something bad happens to avoid facing the loss.
46. Survivorship Bias
We remember the winners and forget about the many, invisible losers. Most common in s
47. Status Quo Bias
This is the preference to keep things the same or maintain a previous decision. It reflects a resistance to change and a comfort with familiarity.
48. Third-Person Effect
The belief that others are more affected by a common phenomenon than you are.
49. Tragedy of the Commons
A situation where individual users acting independently and rationally according to their self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting a common resource.
50. Zeigarnik Effect
Uncompleted tasks agitate our brains until we finish them.
CONCLUSION
These mental models provide various lenses through which I can view problems and make decisions from different perspectives.
These also encourage broader thinking and a better understanding of different contexts and situations.
Closing on the two remarkable statements by Great Charlie Munger and Naval Ravikant.
You need a different checklist and different mental models for different companies. I can never make it easy by saying, ‘Here are three things.’ you have to derive it yourself to ingrain it in your head for the rest of your life. — Charlie Munger
I load my head full of mental models. — Naval Ravikant
Thanks for reading and before you go…