The human brain is a marvel of evolution, capable of incredible feats of creativity, problem-solving, and memory. However, it is a scientific and psychological fact that our minds do indeed play tricks on us. Our brains often take shortcuts, make assumptions, and even deceive us, which can affect how we perceive the world and make decisions.
People tend to see things that are not there, remember events that never happened. And even if everyone sees the same thing, all may be wrong.
Such illusions also can be called cognitive biases. Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from rationality in judgment. They occur because our brains rely on mental shortcuts to process information quickly, but these shortcuts can lead to errors.
words to learn:
marvel (noun) - a wonderful and surprising person or thing
feat (noun) - an action or a piece of work that needs a lot od skill, strength or courage
play a joke/trick on somebody (phrase) - to deceive sb to make them laugh or in order to get an advantage over them
shortcut (noun) - a quicker and more direct way of getting somewhere or doing smth
assumption (noun) - smth that you think is true without having any proof
deviation from smth (noun) - a difference from what is expected or acceptable
According to the Cognitive Bias Codex, there are an estimated 180 cognitive biases. Created by John Manoogian III and Buster Benson, this codex is a useful tool for visually representing all of the known biases that exist to date.
The biases are arranged in a circle and can be divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant is dedicated to a specific group of cognitive biases:
1.What should we remember?
Biases that affect our memory for people, events, and information.
2. Too much information
Biases that affect how we perceive certain events and people.
3. Not enough meaning
Biases that we use when we have too little information and need to fill in the gaps.
4. Need to act fast
Biases that affect how we make decisions.
Even though there are numerous examples of cognitive biases, in this article we are highlighting only few of them.
word to learn:
quadrant (noun) - a quarter of a circle
Confirmation bias
We tend to seek out and favor information that confirms our existing beliefs while ignoring evidence that contradicts them. For example, if you believe that left-handed people are more creative, you will notice creative left-handed individuals but overlook creative right-handed ones.
Gambler’s fallacy
This false belief describes our tendency to believe that something will happen because it has not happened yet.
For example, a basketball fan might believe that a player is “due” to make a shot after missing several in a row, even though each shot is an independent event.
Group attribution error
This error describes our tendency to overgeneralise how a group of people will behave based on an interaction with only one person from that group.
words to learn:
seek someone/something out (ph.verb) - to look for sb or smth, especially for a long time until you find him, her, or it
to contradict - to say the opposite of what sb else has said
to overlook - to fail to notice or consider smth or sb
to overgeneralise - to make a statement that is not accurate because it is too general
The Halo Effect
(just because that real estate agent was nice does not mean it is a good deal)
Our overall impression of a person, company, brand, or product influences how we feel and think about their specific traits or qualities. In simpler terms, if we perceive someone or something positively in one area, we are likely to assume they are positive in other areas as well - even without evidence. Conversely, if our initial impression is negative, we may assume other negative traits.
On of the experiments contributed to knowledge of cognitive biases:
The attractiveness halo effect(Landy & Sigall, 1974)
Male students were asked to rate essays written by female authors. The quality of the essays varied: some were poorly written, and others were well written.
Additionally, some of the essays were accompanied by a photograph of the author (who was either attractive or unattractive), and others were not. Male college students rated the quality of the essay and the talent of the authors higher when the essay was written by an attractive author.
In this study, the male students demonstrated the halo effect, applying the perceived attractiveness of the female author to the quality of the paper.
Conclusion
Humans will always make inferences and go beyond the information given. It is one of the reasons a group of colleagues can go to the same meeting and come away with very different understandings of what was discussed. Our background knowledge and beliefs can shape our comprehension. But from this moment on, we should keep track of our thoughts, if possible, in order to avoid being so easily tricked.
words to learn:
to perceive - to understand or think of sb/smth a particular way
inference (noun) - a guess that you make based on the information that you have
go beyond something (ph.verb) - if sb goes beyond something, they do more than is expected of them
comprehension (noun) - the ability to understand smth completely