Cognitive Biases - Passage Analysis Exercises - LIVE Set 1

Representativeness Heuristic - Conjunction Fallacy

Linda is 31 years old, outspoken and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.

Availability Bias

Emery is an ER nurse. Like many hospital workers, she believes that more people end up in the ER when there is a full moon than other days. This belief is false. There is no statistical correlation between a full moon and frequency of ER visits.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Jessica is at a lively party. She notices Bruno on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall, not talking to anyone. She judges that Bruno is shy.

Confirmation Bias - Noticing / Remembering

Marina, a local college student, believes that she has ESP (extrasensory perception). When asked for examples, she says that it's weird how often it happens that she'll be thinking of her mom, and then her mom calls. And she can't count how many times she was out and about on campus and thought she saw someone she knew, but it turned out not to be that person, and then, moments later, ran into that same person.

Illusion of Truth Effect

Napoleon Bonaparte (17th century French statesman and military leader) reportedly said that "there is only one figure in rhetoric of serious importance, namely, repetition", whereby a repeated affirmation fixes itself in the mind "in such a way that it is accepted in the end as a demonstrated truth". Which bias is Napoleon describing?

Framing Effects

People tend to prefer a product described as '99% fat-free' to that same product described as containing 1% fat.

Confirmation Bias - Interpreting

Salma often worries that her classmates don't really like her. Earlier today she passed Sofia near the library. She called Sofia's name and waved, but Sofia didn't acknowledge her and wave back. Now Salma is worried that Sofia is annoyed with her.

Implicit Bias

Sarah is in charge of hiring a new software programmer. As she's reading through resumes and setting any resume with a gap in their work history, one of these gap-in-the-work-history resumes catches her attention: Sanjay Patel. She skims his resume and notes that his education, experience, and listed skills match the job requirements. She puts his resume back in the pile and sets the rest of the gappy-work-history job candidates aside.

Dunning Kruger Effect

Steve is taking an 'Introduction to College Writing' course. In his self-assessment assignments he consistently rates himself as doing 'excellent' work. Indeed, his self-assessments are amongst the highest in the whole class. In fact, Steve is actually one of the lowest performing students in the class.

Confirmation Bias - Searching

Steve is worried that vaccines cause autism. So he searches Google: "Do vaccines cause autism?"

Confirmation Bias: *Evaluating* Evidence

Subjects are asked to read a research paper on topic X and assess to the quality of the evidence provided in support of the conclusions drawn. Subjects receive one of two research papers. Except for the conclusions drawn, the two papers are otherwise identical. Result: Subject's assessment of the evidence as strong or weak correlates with pre-existing beliefs about X.

Representativeness Heuristic - Base Rate Neglect

There is a hip and happening party going on. At this party there are 20 engineers and 80 lawyers. Jack is one of the people at the party. Jack is a 45 year old man. He is married and has four children. He is generally conservative, careful, and ambitious. He shows now interest in political and social issues and spends most of his free time on his many hobbies, which include home carpentry, sailing, and mathematical puzzles. Question: Is Jack an engineer or a lawyer? Many people respond that Jack is more likely to be an engineer.