Cognitive Biases

[Music] we are all quite familiar with the phenomenon of optical illusions but less so with that of cognitive biases yet these perceptual distortions that are to our mind what optical illusions are to our visual system incite us to make erroneous judgments or bad decisions daily these shortcuts of the mind that allow the brain to simplify the processing of information are inevitable still we can learn to detect them by better understanding them at the outset i invite you to answer the following riddle as fast as possible i am the sister of two olympic athletes yet these

two athletes are not my sisters how is that possible you may pause the video and think about the solution otherwise here it is [Music] well these two olympic athletes are my brothers just because i'm a girl doesn't mean i only have sisters congratulations if you got the correct answer your critical thinking skills are well trained but chances are you got it wrong even though you thought you were thinking logically and rationally in fact it is your brain that has managed to deceive you as it very often does through cognitive processes that allow it under certain

constraints to provide quick and intuitive answers that are satisfactory on the surface when these intuitive thoughts mislead us they are called cognitive biases this brain process is automatic and unconscious and while we can to some extent intervene in it after the fact it is impossible to prevent there are four reasons why our brain resorts to cognitive biases an overabundance of information to process the need to make sense the need to act quickly the need to store information for later use given our limited cognitive abilities there are about 250 different cognitive biases of which the following

are a sample confirmation bias is a tendency to favor information that supports our hypotheses or preconceived ideas and to underestimate or ignore information that does not support them for example choosing only one news source as your information outlet or making an impression about an article just from its title without reading it entirely and if you think you are not subject to confirmation bias just ask yourself if you ever got defensive when someone challenged your views on a specific topic hindsight bias can be summarized by the classic i knew it from the start it consists of

overestimating after an event has taken place the fact that it was foreseeable or probable in fact we try to put the present in line with the past that is the event once realized in line with the context preceding the event the fundamental attribution error is a bias that consists of overestimating the personal characteristics of individuals their personality opinions intentions etc to explain their behavior and underestimating the external and situational factors that might come into play for example actors and actresses can often be confused with their on-screen characters overconfidence is a cognitive bias that affects more

than half of us it consists of overestimating one's abilities especially in relation to those of others the majority of us would therefore consider ourselves to have an above average intelligence which is mathematically improbable in conclusion developing one's critical thinking and metacognitive skills as well as taking a step back from one's emotions when making a decision is necessary to better fight against the traps our brain sets for us and knowing some of the different cognitive biases is also useful if only to become aware that we are indeed victims of them this video is a snippet of

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