12 Cognitive Biases Explained - How to Think Better and More Logically Removing Bias

Summary

In Practical Psychology's enlightening video, the host delves into 12 specific cognitive biases that can skew our thinking and decision-making processes. These biases include familiar ones like anchoring bias, where initial information overly influences our perception and decisions, and availability heuristic, where we overstate the importance of information we frequently encounter. The video provides engaging examples for each bias, illustrating how these mental shortcuts affect everything from purchasing decisions to broader societal beliefs. By understanding these biases, viewers can begin to think more critically and logically.

Highlights

• Anchoring bias tricks our minds by making the first information seem the most important. 🌟
• Availability heuristic makes rare events seem common due to repeated exposure in media. 📣
• Bandwagon effect encourages us to go with the flow, even against our initial thoughts. 🌊
• Choice supportive bias has us stick to our guns, defending our own choices. 🎖️
• Confirmation bias filters information through our pre-existing beliefs, ignoring contradictions. 🛡️
• Ostrich bias is like sticking our heads in the sand to avoid bad news. 🐦
• Outcome bias means we praise decisions that worked out, regardless of the initial logic. 🏆
• Overconfidence bias can blind us, making us rely solely on our instincts. 🕶️
• Placebo bias shows the power of belief in achieving real effects, even if they're psychological. 🌀
• Survivorship bias obsesses over winners and ignores the equally important stories of the lost. 🎸
• Selective perception curates our view of the world to match our preconceptions. 🎨
• Blind spot bias reassures us we're unbiased, even when evidence says otherwise. 🔍

Key Takeaways

• Anchoring bias affects decisions by giving undue weight to the first piece of information received. ⚓️
• The availability heuristic leads us to overestimate the importance of information we recall easily. 📺
• Bandwagon effect shows our tendency to follow the crowd regardless of personal belief. 🚀
• Choice supportive bias makes us defend our past decisions, even if flawed. 🍏
• Confirmation bias leads us to focus on information that confirms our existing beliefs. 🔍
• The ostrich bias involves ignoring negative information or problems, hoping they'll disappear. 🦣
• Outcome bias evaluates decisions based on results rather than the process. 🎯
• Overconfidence can make us overlook facts due to past successes. 🎈
• Placebo bias demonstrates how our beliefs can actually influence outcomes. 💊
• Survivorship bias leads us to focus only on successful cases, ignoring failures. 🏁
• Selective perception means seeing what we expect or want to see, ignoring the rest. 👀
• Blind spot bias convinces us we're less biased than others, overlooking our own flaws. 🌪️

Overview

In the video by Practical Psychology, viewers are introduced to the intriguing world of cognitive biases - those little mental shortcuts that often lead our brains astray. The host uncovers 12 such biases that subtly influence our daily decisions and thoughts. With each bias, from anchoring, where the first piece of info overly impacts our judgments, to the elusive blind spot bias, where we believe we're less biased than others, the viewer is invited on a journey of self-discovery.

As human beings, we rely on various mental frameworks to navigate life's complexities. However, as Practical Psychology points out, these frameworks, or biases, occasionally lead us astray. Some biases, like the availability heuristic or the bandwagon effect, demonstrate how our environment and the behavior of others color our thinking. Meanwhile, biases such as choice supportive and outcome bias reveal our inner struggles with defending our decisions and judging actions based solely on results rather than the process.

The video challenges viewers to become aware of these biases, presenting them as opportunities for growth rather than limitations. By recognizing biases such as overconfidence and selective perception, the journey towards clearer and more logical thinking is made possible. This engaging guide encourages a reflective look at how biases not only shape individual choices but also influence larger societal trends. Through humor and relatable examples, Practical Psychology ensures that this insightful exploration remains both fun and thought-provoking.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Anchoring Bias This chapter introduces the concept of cognitive biases, focusing on the anchoring bias. It explains how humans have a tendency to rely heavily on the first piece of information they receive, regardless of its reliability. This initial information can greatly affect decision-making. The content references research and animations from "off TV" on similar topics.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Availability Heuristic Bias This chapter explores the concept of the availability heuristic bias, illustrated through an example of buying a car. Initially, a car is priced at $30,000, and later offered at $20,000, making the latter seem like a favorable deal due to the high initial price. Conversely, if the car is first priced at $10,000 and then at $20,000, the new price seems less attractive. This example demonstrates anchoring bias, where initial information heavily influences perception of value.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Bandwagon Effect The chapter titled 'Bandwagon Effect' discusses cognitive biases, using examples such as price perception and estimations. Specifically, it examines how the way questions are framed affects people's perceptions and decisions. For instance, when people are asked if the tallest tree in the world is higher or lower than 1,200 feet, their answers are influenced by the anchor number provided, demonstrating the anchoring bias. Similarly, it touches on the availability heuristic bias, where individuals overestimate the significance of readily available information, like the perception of terrorism as a major threat.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Choice Supportive Bias In the chapter titled 'Choice Supportive Bias,' the focus is on the common misconceptions and inflated perceptions of danger regarding terrorism in the United States, largely influenced by media portrayal. It presents a counterintuitive perspective by citing statistics that reveal people are more likely to die from everyday accidents, like television-related incidents and cow-related accidents, than from terrorist attacks. The point is further illustrated with a humorous reference to the unlikelihood of a terrorist attack compared to the chances of being killed by a falling coconut. The chapter may also touch on the role of law enforcement in this context, possibly questioning the necessity of heightened security against terrorism when other, more mundane threats are statistically more significant.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Confirmation Bias The chapter titled 'Confirmation Bias' discusses how people often make decisions based on news, stories, and societal narratives rather than on factual data and statistics. It highlights the misconception that dying from a terrorist attack is more likely than other causes, such as being killed by the police, which is statistically more probable. The chapter also addresses the bandwagon effect, where individuals follow popular beliefs or trends without critical thought, simply because the majority does so. This reinforces the tendency to conform to societal pressures rather than making informed choices.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Ostrich Bias The chapter titled 'Ostrich Bias' discusses the psychological phenomenon known as the bandwagon effect, which occurs when people follow the actions or beliefs of others. It mentions that individuals often vote for popular candidates, buy stocks that others are purchasing, or agree with the majority in meetings. The chapter contrasts this with groupthink, another psychological phenomenon where a group's desire for harmony leads to irrational decision-making, highlighting its significance in management contexts.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Outcome Bias The chapter titled 'Outcome Bias' discusses psychological biases, specifically focusing on the choice supportive bias. This bias refers to the tendency of individuals to defend their choices by emphasizing their correctness, often ignoring any negative aspects associated with those choices. An example given is how people might defend their choice of purchasing an Apple MacBook over a Windows PC by highlighting the advantages of the Apple product while overlooking its disadvantages and criticizing the PC. The chapter also touches on how group conformity can suppress individual ideas, using the context of nine out of ten people agreeing on an idea while one dissenting voice is silenced, potentially stifling innovation or valid alternatives.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Overconfidence Bias The chapter 'Overconfidence Bias' discusses the tendency of individuals to believe in their own abilities, decisions, or affiliations more strongly than is justified. One example provided is how people perceive their own pets or political candidates; despite having flaws, an individual might still view them as superior due to personal attachment or investment. The chapter also briefly introduces confirmation bias, which is the tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information that confirms one's preexisting beliefs.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Placebo Bias The chapter titled 'Placebo Bias' discusses the concept of confirmation bias, a cognitive bias where individuals are more likely to seek out and believe information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs. The example given involves a person who only searches for negative information about sugar, ignoring any potential positive effects. The chapter highlights the danger of confirmation bias, especially in scientific contexts, making it one of the most common cognitive biases. It also mentions the ostrich bias, although details on this are not included.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Survivorship Bias The chapter discusses the concept of survivorship bias, which involves the tendency to focus only on the positive aspects or successes while ignoring negative information or failures. This bias can manifest in various ways, such as procrastination in the belief that problems will resolve themselves if ignored and the conscious choice of smokers to overlook the health risks associated with smoking.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Selective Perception The chapter titled "Selective Perception" delves into the intricacies of how individuals perceive and process information selectively. One example it provides is the behavior of smokers who ignore the negative implications of cigarettes. These individuals often believe that smoking will not harm them or presume they will quit before any serious harm occurs. This selective perception serves as a mechanism for avoiding negative information. The chapter points out that this selective ignorance can be dangerous, especially in scientific research laboratories, as it suppresses the pursuit of complete knowledge and promotes ignorance. Moreover, the chapter introduces the concept of "outcome bias," where people judge the efficacy of a decision based mainly on the results, rarely considering the initial conditions present when the decision was made. This bias leads to evaluating performance based on outcomes rather than understanding the process involved.
• 11:00 - 12:00: Blind Spot Bias and Conclusion The chapter explores biases such as outcome bias and hindsight bias, where decisions are judged based on the results rather than the process or facts involved. An example is given of a manager who trusts his gut over team advice and facts, leading to a discussion on whether gut decisions are superior if they happen to result in success.

12 Cognitive Biases Explained - How to Think Better and More Logically Removing Bias Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey guys practice psychology here and in this video we're going to be talking about 12 cognitive biases most of these were researched by is one off TV who has some great animations on topics like these and other self development topics so check them out in the description or on the end screen now let's get into it number one is anchoring bias we humans usually completely rely on the first information that we received no matter how reliable that piece of information is when we take decisions the very first information has tremendous effect on our brain for instance i want to sell you a
• 00:30 - 01:00 car and you are interested to buy it let's say you ask me what the prices and I tell you thirty thousand dollars now if you come back a week later and i say i'll sell it to you for twenty thousand dollars this seems like a new very cheap price to you right because your judgment is based on the initial information you got which was 30,000 you feel like you're getting a great deal but let's say the first time that you ask me and I say 10,000 and then you come back the next week and i tell you i'm gonna sell to you for 20,000 now it doesn't look like a very good deal because of the anchoring bias this is just a very generic use of the anchoring bias and I
• 01:00 - 01:30 don't want a bunch of comments about why thirty thousand dollar car should be sold for ten thousand dollars but another example is trees what if I asked you if the tallest tree in the world was higher or lower than 1,200 feet and if so how tall the same effect occurs if I asked you to guess out of thin air instead of giving you an anchor of 1,200 feet the results are crazy number to availability heuristic bias people overestimate the importance of information that they have let me give you an example here some people think that terrorism is the biggest threat to
• 01:30 - 02:00 the United States because that's what they see on TV the news always talks about it and because of that it inflates the danger but if you look at the real perspectives televisions cause 55 times more deaths than terrorism yes tvs literally following people and kill them fifty five more times than terrorism you're more likely to be killed by a cow than a terrorist according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission it's more likely to die from a coconut falling on your head and killing you than a terrorist attack thank you gary vaynerchuk for that one even the police that are hired to protect you from terrorists
• 02:00 - 02:30 it's estimated that you were a hundred thirty times more likely to be killed by the police and by a terrorist that's because people do not make the decision based on facts and statistics but usually they make it on news and stories and stuff they hear from other people it's way scarier to die from a terrorist attack in a falling coconut and because of this usually the news won't cover it because there's not much money in it number three is the bandwagon effect people do or believe in something not because they actually do believe it but because that's what the rest of the world believes in in other words following the rest without thinking if you've ever heard
• 02:30 - 03:00 someone say well if your friends jump off a bridge would you then that someone is accusing you of the bandwagon effect it happens a lot with us I mean a lot of people vote for a certain candidate in the election because he's the most popular or because they want to be part of the majority it happens a lot in the stock market too if someone starts buying a stock because they think it's going to rise then a lot of other people are going to start picking the stock as well it can also happen during meetings if everyone agrees on something you are more likely to agree with him on that object in management the opposite of this is called the group think and it's something companies try very hard to
• 03:00 - 03:30 turn because if nine out of ten people agree on something for the last person doesn't and won't speak up it could squelch a great idea number four is choice supportive bias so people have the tendency to defend themselves because it was their choice just because I made the choice it must be right for example let's say a person buys an apple product let's say it's a macbook instead of a windows pc well he's more likely to ignore the downsides or the faults of the apple computer while pointing out the downsides of the pc he's more likely to notice the advantages of the apple
• 03:30 - 04:00 computer not the windows computer i would someone point out that they made a bad decision well let's say you have a dog you think it's awesome because it's your dog although it might poop on the floor every now and then the same goes for political candidates not the pooping part but they both may suck but one of the lesser of two evils maybe more right in your mind because you voted for them number five confirmation bias we tend to listen to information that confirms what we already know or even interpret the information that we receive in a way that confirms the current information that we already have let's say that your friend believes that suites are
• 04:00 - 04:30 unhealthy this is generally a pretty broad belief he will only focus on the information that confirms what we already know is more likely to click on videos that confirmed that belief or read articles that support his argument he doesn't go through and type positive health effects of increasing blood glucose levels or positive effects of eating a bowl of ice cream no he will instinctively go to google and type in how bad is sugar for you the confirmation bias is a very dangerous in scientific situations and actually one of the most widely committed cognitive biases number six the ostrich bias this is the decision or
• 04:30 - 05:00 rather subconscious decision to ignore the negative information it may also be an indication we only want to consider the positive aspects of something this goes beyond are only looking for the positive information but this is when there is negative information and we choose to ignore it as an outlier sometimes even when we have a problem we try to ignore it thinking it will go away let's say you have an assignment to do it's not something that you really want to do so you may just keep on procrastinating with it because you're minding said it will go away or is solved by ignoring it smokers usually they know it's bad for their health but a lot of them keep
• 05:00 - 05:30 ignoring the negative implications of cigarettes thinking it will not damage them or might stop them before anything serious will happen because they consider themselves in our wire to avoid finding out negative information we just stop looking for it this could be a serious crime in many scientific research laboratories and basically promotes ignorance number 7 outcome bias we tend to judge the efficacy of a decision based primarily on how things turn out after decision is made we rarely examine the conditions that existed at the time of the decision choosing instead to evaluate performance
• 05:30 - 06:00 solely or mostly on whether the end result was positive or not in other words you decide whether an action is right or wrong based on the outcome this goes a little bit into consequentialism but it goes hand-in-hand with the hindsight bias let's say there's a manager who wants to take the decision his team and the data are telling him to make one decision but his gut is telling him to make another decision well he goes ahead and makes the decision that has got told him to do and then in the end it was the right decision does that mean it's actually better to trust your gut rather than listen your team who is advising you based on facts and statistics well that's what the outcome biases you
• 06:00 - 06:30 take the decision and bass the effectiveness of your decision on the outcome even if it was luck now this is bad logical thinking and will actually lead you to ruin thinking and bad outcomes in the long run number 8 overconfidence sometimes you get too confident and start taking decisions not based on facts but based on your opinion or gut because you have been correct so many times in the past for example you are a stock trader and you pick five stocks in a couple years all of them turn out to be successful and profitable it increases your confidence to a point where you can start believing that whatever start you pick will be
• 06:30 - 07:00 successful it's quite dangerous because you might stop looking at the facts and solely rely on your opinion check out the gamblers fallacy if you want more information on this just because you flip the coin five times and it landed on heads doesn't mean that the next time there's more than fifty percent chance of it landing on ahead again ego is the enemy is a great book about this bias and i just made a book review on it number nine placebo bias when you believe something will have a certain effect on you then it will actually cause that effect for instance you are sick and the doctor gives you a certain medicine even if that medicine does not
• 07:00 - 07:30 actually help you even if it's just made of sugar you believe that it will help you and it actually causes you to recover quicker this might not sound very logical but dozens of experiments have proven this that's why if you realize positive people usually have positive life and vice-versa the way you think is super important and we've hit on this in previous videos for the same reason a lot of personal development books say that if you really believe something you will eventually achieve it or at least find a way to achieve it because the placebo effect will give you the motivation that need the mind truly is a
• 07:30 - 08:00 powerful thing and this actually isn't always bad thinking in fact you can use a placebo effect in our advantage if we use it wisely there's actually a reverse of this and it's called the nocebo and this is when it is native number ten survivorship bias this bias is when you are judging something based on the surviving information let me give you an example here there are a lot of articles titled like five things millionaires do every morning does that mean doing those things every morning will make you a millionaire know there are tons of people who did them and didn't become a millionaire but there are also tons of people who did
• 08:00 - 08:30 them and did become a millionaire so these articles are primarily based on the ones who survived and reject all other people to do the same thing but did not become millionaires another example is to say that buildings in an ancient city were built using extreme engineering because they lasted so long this is a bad conclusion because you aren't considering what ratio of buildings were built to how many that lasted you're only seeing the ones that lasted thousands of years of weathering when the other ninety percent I've already washed away it's hard to know what you don't know number 11 selective perception i like
• 08:30 - 09:00 this one selective perception is a form of bias that causes people to perceive messages and actions according to their frame of reference using selective perception people tend to overlook and forget that contradicts our beliefs or expectations let's say for example you're a smoker and you're a big fan of soccer you're more likely to ignore the negative advertisements about cigarettes because since you are already smoking you have this perception that it's okay to smoke but there's an advertisement about soccer you are more likely to notice it because you have a very positive perception about it
• 09:00 - 09:30 this is actually something really interesting and has to do with how you perceive the world due to your subconscious mind and what it filters out the last one is called the blind spot bias if I asked you how biased you are you would probably say that you are less biased than the average person and you are more likely to base your judgment on facts and statistics and that's what's known as a blind spot bias or the bias bias your bias because you think that you are less biased than everyone else for example i guess it's something to my teacher and the next week she gave me a good grade on a test if you ask her whether she was biased when she gave me
• 09:30 - 10:00 that grade the answer will be that the gift never affected her decision when marking my paper but if you ask her if other teachers are biased when students give them gifts she will say yes in most cases and that's what the blind spot biases i really enjoyed creating this video but most of the content was curated by my friend is gone off he's got a channel similar to mine and I'd like you to check it out here or in the description i hope you guys enjoyed this video and learn something if you want more valuables like this check out my channel and subscribe thanks for watching