Cognitive biases A cognitive bias is a repeating or basic misstep in thinking, assessing, recollecting, or other cognitive processes. That is, a pattern of deviation from standards in judgment, whereby inferences may be created unreasonably. People create their own "subjective
social reality" from their own perceptions, their view of the world may dictate their behaviour. Thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called
irrationality. However some cognitive biases are taken to be
adaptive, and thus may lead to success in the appropriate situation. Furthermore, cognitive biases as an example through education may allow faster choice selection when speedier outcomes for a task are more valuable than precision. Other cognitive biases are a "by-product" of human processing limitations, coming about because of an
absence of appropriate mental mechanisms, or just from human limitations in
information processing.
Anchoring Anchoring is a
psychological heuristic that describes the propensity to rely on the first piece of
information encountered when
making decisions. According to this
heuristic, individuals begin with an implicitly suggested reference point (the "anchor") and make adjustments to it to reach their estimate.
Apophenia Apophenia, also known as patternicity, or agenticity, is the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within
random data. Apophenia is well documented as a
rationalization for gambling. Gamblers may imagine that they see patterns in the numbers which appear in
lotteries,
card games, or
roulette wheels. One manifestation of this is known as the "
gambler's fallacy". Pareidolia is the visual or auditory form of apophenia. It has been suggested that pareidolia combined with
hierophany may have helped ancient societies organize chaos and make the world intelligible.
Attribution bias An attribution bias could happen when individuals assess or attempt to discover explanations behind their own and others' behaviors. People make
attributions about the causes of their own and others' behaviors; but these attributions do not necessarily precisely reflect reality. Rather than operating as objective perceivers, individuals are inclined to perceptual slips that prompt biased understandings of their social world. When judging others we tend to assume their actions are the result of internal factors such as
personality, whereas we tend to assume our own actions arise because of the necessity of external circumstances. There are a wide range of
sorts of attribution biases, such as the
ultimate attribution error,
fundamental attribution error,
actor-observer bias, and
self-serving bias. Examples of attribution bias:
Confirmation bias ", echoing back a person's beliefs like
Charles Dickens' character
Uriah Heep. Confirmation bias is the tendency to
search for,
interpret, favor, and
recall information in a way that confirms one's
beliefs or
hypotheses while giving disproportionately less attention to information that contradicts it. The effect is stronger for
emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain
attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence),
belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and
illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations). Confirmation biases contribute to
overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Poor
decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts.
Framing Framing involves the
social construction of
social phenomena by
mass media sources,
political or social movements,
political leaders, and so on. It is an influence over how people organize, perceive, and communicate about
reality. It can be positive or negative, depending on the audience and what kind of information is being presented. For political purposes, framing often presents facts in such a way that implicates a problem that is in need of a solution. Members of political parties attempt to frame issues in a way that makes a solution favoring their own political leaning appear as the most appropriate course of action for the situation at hand. As understood in
social theory, framing is a
schema of
interpretation, a collection of
anecdotes and
stereotypes, that individuals rely on to understand and respond to events. People use filters to make sense of the world, the choices they then make are influenced by their creation of a frame. Cultural bias is the related phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one's own culture. Numerous such biases exist, concerning cultural norms for color, location of body parts,
mate selection, concepts of
justice,
linguistic and
logical validity, acceptability of
evidence, and
taboos. Ordinary people may tend to imagine other people as basically the same, not significantly more or less valuable, probably attached emotionally to different groups and different land.
Halo effect and horn effect The halo effect and the horn effect are when an
observer's overall impression of a person,
organization,
brand, or
product influences their feelings about specifics of that entity's character or properties. The name halo effect is based on the concept of the
saint's halo, and is a specific type of
confirmation bias, wherein positive sentiments in one area cause questionable or unknown characteristics to be seen positively. If the observer likes one aspect of something, they will have a positive predisposition toward everything about it. A person's
appearance has been found to produce a halo effect. The halo effect is also present in the field of
brand marketing, affecting perception of
companies and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The opposite of the halo is the horn effect, when "individuals believe (that negative) traits are inter-connected." The term horn effect refers to
Devil's horns. It works in a negative direction: if the observer dislikes one aspect of something, they will have a negative predisposition towards other aspects.
Self-serving bias Self-serving bias is the tendency for
cognitive or
perceptual processes to be
distorted by the individual's need to maintain and enhance
self-esteem. It is the propensity to credit accomplishment to our own capacities and endeavors, yet attribute failure to outside factors, to dismiss the legitimacy of negative criticism, concentrate on positive qualities and accomplishments yet disregard flaws and failures. Studies have demonstrated that this bias can affect
behavior in the
workplace, in
interpersonal relationships, playing
sports, and in
consumer decisions.
Status quo bias Status quo bias is an
emotional bias; a preference for the current state of affairs. The current baseline (or status quo) is taken as a reference point, and any change from that baseline is perceived as a loss. Status quo bias should be distinguished from a rational preference for the
status quo ante, as when the current state of affairs is objectively superior to the available alternatives, or when imperfect information is a significant problem. A large body of evidence, however, shows that status quo bias frequently affects human decision-making.
Conflicts of interest A conflict of interest is when a
person or
association has intersecting interests (
financial,
personal, etc.) which could potentially corrupt. The potential conflict is autonomous of actual
improper actions, it can be found and intentionally defused before
corruption, or the appearance of corruption, happens. "A conflict of interest is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgement or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest." It exists if the circumstances are sensibly accepted to present a hazard that choices made may be unduly affected by auxiliary interests.
Corruption A conflict of interest arises when a decision-maker participates in a corrupt act that seeks to influence the outcome in favor of a specific individual, organization, or entity in a decision-making process. For example, attempts to solicit a
bribe or
kickback in exchange for favoring a party creates a conflict of interest. A perceived conflict of interest may also arise in an individual who is offered such a payment, even if it is declined, particularly in situations where the attempt to bribe is not reported. Laws restricting whether a monetary transaction is appropriate can differ between jurisdictions based upon their criminal laws. For example, some nations criminalize the receipt of political
campaign contributions in the form of cash, while other nations permit cash donations provided that donors otherwise adhere to election law.
Favoritism Favoritism, sometimes known as in-group favoritism, or in-group bias, refers to a pattern of favoring members of one's
in-group over out-group members. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, in allocation of resources, and in many other ways. This has been researched by
psychologists, especially
social psychologists, and linked to
group conflict and
prejudice.
Cronyism is favoritism of long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications.
Nepotism is favoritism granted to
relatives.
Lobbying to Dutch
Member of the European Parliament Kartika Liotard in September 2013 Lobbying is the attempt to influence choices made by
administrators, frequently
lawmakers or individuals from
administrative agencies. Lobbyists may be among a legislator's
constituencies, or not; they may engage in lobbying as a
business, or not. Lobbying is often spoken of with
contempt, the implication is that people with inordinate
socioeconomic power are
corrupting the
law in order to serve their own interests. When people who have a
duty to act on behalf of others, such as elected officials with a duty to serve their constituents' interests or more broadly the
common good, stand to benefit by shaping the law to serve the interests of some private parties, there is a conflict of interest. This can lead to all sides in a debate looking to sway the issue by means of lobbyists.
Regulatory issues Self-regulation is the process whereby an organization monitors its own adherence to legal, ethical, or safety standards, rather than have an outside, independent agency such as a third party entity monitor and enforce those standards. Self-regulation of any group can create a conflict of interest. If any organization, such as a corporation or government bureaucracy, is asked to eliminate unethical behavior within their own group, it may be in their interest in the short run to eliminate the appearance of unethical behavior, rather than the behavior itself. Regulatory capture is a form of
political corruption that can occur when a
regulatory agency, created to act in the
public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special
interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture occurs because groups or individuals with a high-stakes interest in the outcome of policy or regulatory decisions can be expected to focus their resources and energies in attempting to gain the policy outcomes they prefer, while members of the public, each with only a tiny individual stake in the outcome, will ignore it altogether. Regulatory capture is a risk to which a regulatory agency is exposed by its very nature.
Shilling Shilling is deliberately giving spectators the feeling that one is an energetic autonomous
client of a
vendor for whom one is working. The effectiveness of shilling relies on
crowd psychology to encourage other onlookers or audience members to purchase the goods or services (or accept the ideas being marketed). Shilling is illegal in some places, but legal in others. An example of shilling is
paid reviews that give the impression of being autonomous opinions.
Statistical biases Statistical bias is a systematic tendency in the process of data collection, which results in lopsided, misleading results. This can occur in any of a number of ways, in the way the sample is selected, or in the way data are collected. It is a property of a
statistical technique or of its results whereby the
expected value of the results differs from the true underlying quantitative
parameter being
estimated.
Forecast bias A forecast bias is when there are consistent differences between results and the forecasts of those quantities; that is: forecasts may have an overall tendency to be too high or too low.
Observer-expectancy effect The observer-expectancy effect is when a
researcher's expectations cause them to subconsciously influence the people participating in an experiment. It is usually
controlled using a
double-blind system, and was an important reason for the development of double-blind experiments.
Reporting bias and social desirability bias In
epidemiology and
empirical research, reporting bias is defined as "selective revealing or suppression of information" of undesirable behavior by subjects or researchers. It refers to a tendency to under-report unexpected or undesirable experimental results, while being more trusting of expected or desirable results. This can propagate, as each instance reinforces the status quo, and later experimenters justify their own reporting bias by observing that previous experimenters reported different results. Social desirability bias is a bias within
social science research where
survey respondents can tend to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed positively by others. It can take the form of over-reporting laudable behavior, or under-reporting undesirable behavior. This bias interferes with the interpretation of average tendencies as well as individual differences. The inclination represents a major issue with
self-report questionnaires; of special concern are self-reports of abilities,
personalities,
sexual behavior, and
drug use. This results in a sample that may be significantly different from the overall population.
Prejudices Bias and prejudice are usually considered to be closely related. Prejudice is prejudgment, or forming an opinion before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case. The word is often used to refer to preconceived, usually unfavorable, judgments toward people or a person because of
gender, political opinion,
social class,
age,
disability,
religion,
sexuality,
race/
ethnicity,
language,
nationality, or other personal characteristics. Prejudice can also refer to unfounded beliefs and may include "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence".
Ageism Ageism is the stereotyping and/or discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. It can be used in reference to prejudicial attitudes towards older people, or towards younger people.
Classism Classism is
discrimination on the basis of
social class. It includes attitudes that benefit the
upper class at the expense of the
lower class, or vice versa.
Lookism Lookism is
stereotypes,
prejudice, and
discrimination on the basis of
physical attractiveness, or more generally to people whose appearance matches cultural preferences. Many people make automatic judgments of others based on their physical appearance that influence how they respond to those people.
Racism Racism consists of ideologies based on a desire to dominate or a belief in the inferiority of another race. It may also hold that members of different races should be treated differently.
Sexism ==Contextual biases==