Conviction Bias

The most common emotion and the source of all our biases is the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. We imagine we are looking for the truth, or being realistic, when in fact we are holding on to ideas that bring a release from tension and soothe our egos, make us feel superior. ...

We experience tremendous relief to find others who think the same way as we do. 

We are social animals by nature. The feeling of isolation, of difference from the group, is depressing and terrifying. But are unaware of this pull of the group and so we imagine we have come to certain ...

Our natural response to failure is to blame others, circumstances, or a momentary lapse of judgment. 

It's often too painful to look at our mistakes. It pokes at our ego. We go through the motions, pretending to reflect on what we did. But with the passage of time, the pleasure princ...

We do not see people as they are, but as they appear to us:

• people have trained themselves in social situations to present the front that is appropriate and that will be judged positively. 
• we fall for the halo effect : when we see certain negative or positive qualitie...

It’s when we cannot seem to see our faults and irrationalities, only those of others. 

For instance, we’ll easily believe that those in the other political party do not come to their opinions based on rational principles, but those on our side have done so.

This al...