Cognitive Biases in Decision Making
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from rationality or good judgment.
These biases affect various aspects of decision-making, including:
- Confirmation Bias: Seeking information that confirms pre-existing beliefs.
- Availability Heuristic: Overestimating easily available information.
- Anchoring Bias: Relying heavily on initial information.
- Overconfidence Bias: Overestimating one’s abilities or knowledge.
- Status Quo Bias: Preferring things to stay the same.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: Making decisions based on past investments.
- Hindsight Bias: Perceiving outcomes as predictable after the fact.
- Bandwagon Effect: Adopting behaviors due to others' actions.
- Optimism Bias: Underestimating risks and overestimating success likelihood.
- Loss Aversion: Preferring to avoid losses over acquiring equivalent gains.
Understanding these biases is crucial in making rational and informed decisions in various contexts.