10. The Optimism Bias

The self-serving bias is a tendency for people tend to give themselves credit for successes but lay the blame for failures on outside causes. When you do well on a project, you probably assume that it’s because you worked hard. But when things turn out badly, you are more likely to blame it on ci...

The availability heuristic is the tendency to estimate the probability of something happening based on how many examples readily come to mind.

It is essentially a mental shortcut designed to save us time when we are trying to determine risk. The problem with relying on this way of thinking ...

The actor-observer bias is the tendency to attribute our actions to external influences and other people's actions to internal ones. The way we perceive others and how we attribute their actions hinges on a variety of variables, but it can be heavily influenced by whether we are the actor or the ...

The anchoring bias is the tendency to be overly influenced by the first piece of information that we hear. Some examples of how this works:

Like other cognitive biases, anchoring can have an effect on the decisions you make each day. For instance, it can influence how much you are willing t...

The misinformation effect is the tendency for memories to be heavily influenced by things that happened after the actual event itself. A person who witnesses a car accident or crime might believe that their recollection is crystal clear, but researchers have found that memory is surprisingly susc...

The hindsight bias is a common cognitive bias that involves the tendency to see events, even random ones, as more predictable than they are. It's also commonly referred to as the "I knew it all along" phenomenon.

The hindsight bias occurs for a combination of reasons, including our ability ...

List of Common Cognitive Biases

While people like to believe that they are rational and logical, the fact is that people are continually under the influence of cognitive biases. These biases distort thinking, influence beliefs, and sway the decisions and judgments that people make each and ...

The cognitive biases above are common, but this is only a sampling of the many biases that can affect your thinking. These biases collectively influence much of our thoughts and ultimately, decision making.

Many of these biases are inevitable. We simply don't have the time to evaluate every...

The confirmation bias is the tendency to listen more often to information that confirms our existing beliefs. Through this bias, people tend to favor information that reinforces the things they already think or believe.

People on two sides of an issue can listen to the same story and walk a...

The halo effect is the tendency for an initial impression of a person to influence what we think of them overall. Also known as the "physical attractiveness stereotype" or the "what is beautiful is 'good' principle" we are either influenced by or use the halo to influence others almost every day....

The false consensus effect is the tendency people have to overestimate how much other people agree with their own beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and values.

First, the people we spend the most time with, our family and friends, do often tend to share very similar opinions and beliefs. Becau...