Topic

Psychology

A collection of 19 issues

Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a bias where people think that they are smarter than they actually are. A person with low ability is more likely to overestimate themselves. This is due to their lack of perception of the task at hand and lack of previous experience. Both leading them to

Self-serving Bias

This is a bias that leads to a person taking credit for positive outcomes and blaming external factors for negative outcomes. In other words, anything that we do that we perceive is good or leads to a good outcome we tend to positively reinforce it with self-serving bias. The hidden

Action Bias

What is it? Action bias is a tendency to do something in a situation due to factors like to gain a sense of control, social norms, peer pressure etc. We feel compelled to act even if there is no evidence that it might lead to a favourable outcome. Taking a

Extrapolation Bias

Extrapolation bias is a tendency to take recent experience and project that it will continue into the future. We tend to think in a straight line. And it is very hard for us to imagine or perceive future anomalies. A most common way this occurs in finance is when valuing

Freudian Slip

A Freudian slip is an error that occurs due to an internal train of thought. It is said that this happens due to the interference of the unconscious. It is characterized as a slip because it is an indication of what you are thinking behind the scenes. Sometimes these slips

Availability Bias

Availability Bias is a tendency to over-value something just because you were able to recall it or you remember something well. The underlying assumption is that if we remember it so well, it must be really important. That can be far from reality. If we see 2 recent stories of

Anchoring Bias

Anchoring bias causes you to get distracted by the information that was presented first. Even if that is not relevant to the task at hand. Information that follows will also be judged relative to what was presented first. The first piece of information has now become anchored in your thought

Metacognition

Metacognition is “thinking about thinking”. It is being aware of what and how we think and why we think in a particular way. This is a skill that can compound very well if used properly. Metacognition is critical to learning. We need to engage different ways of learning

First Conclusion Bias

This is bias where there is a tendency to reach a conclusion based on the first stimuli we get. This tendency may also be attributed as an energy/saving behaviour. Once we think about out first conclusion, we have given it more ammunition. This can lead to 2 things. Firstly,

Concision Bias

This is a bias that occurs mainly in media. With lowering attention spans, media institutions are forced to summarize and condense news to make it more appealing to its readers. But summarization comes at a cost. The content loses context and that can have a big effect on how the