Here are some common cognitive biases and a question for each that can help someone identify if they are falling into the bias:
- Confirmation Bias: the tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs.
- “Am I only looking for information that confirms what I already believe and ignoring information that contradicts it?”
- Availability Heuristic: the tendency to overestimate the importance or likelihood of information that is easily available.
- “Am I relying too much on information that is easily accessible to me, and not considering other relevant information that may be harder to find?”
- Anchoring Bias: the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions.
- “Am I overly influenced by the first piece of information I received, and not considering other options or perspectives?”
- Hindsight Bias: the tendency to believe, after an event has occurred, that one would have predicted or expected the outcome.
- “Am I thinking that I knew all along what would happen when in reality, I only know this after the fact?”
- Framing Effect: the influence of wording, context, or presentation of information on decision making.
- “Am I making a decision based on how the information is presented to me, rather than the actual information itself?”
- Overconfidence Bias: the tendency to overestimate one’s abilities or the accuracy of one’s beliefs.
- “Am I overestimating my abilities or the accuracy of my beliefs without considering other possibilities?”
- Self-Serving Bias: the tendency to attribute successes to personal abilities and failures to external factors.
- “Am I attributing my successes solely to my abilities and blaming external factors for my failures?”
- Bandwagon Effect: the tendency to do or believe something because many other people do or believe the same thing.
- “Am I making a decision solely based on the fact that many other people are doing or believing the same thing, without considering other options?”
- Negativity Bias: the tendency to give more weight to negative experiences or information than positive ones.
- “Am I focusing too much on negative experiences or information and not giving enough attention to positive ones?”
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: the tendency to continue investing in a decision or course of action because of past investment, even if it’s no longer rational.
- “Am I continuing with a decision or course of action solely because I have already invested so much into it, rather than considering if it’s still rational to do so?”