Cognitive Biases
This week, we explored the notion that because the brain provides us with many shortcuts in life (which allows us to spend less effort to do everyday tasks), sometimes the shortcuts can lead us to behave in ways that are illogical. We covered different types of cognitive biases and did exercises to reveal the different biases that people have. Here are some cognitive biases that we discussed:
Confirmation bias
The tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s own beliefs. For example, I gave the boys the following sets of numbers and told them to let me know when they’ve figured out the pattern: [1 5 9] and [17 21 25]. I also asked them to provide me with sets of numbers so that they can test their idea of what the pattern is. The actual pattern was ascending integers, and the boys for a long time would keep providing sets of numbers that confirmed to the idea that the pattern was +4 (so they would say things like [2 6 10]).
Anchoring
The tendency to rely on one piece of information when making decisions (usually the first piece of information received). For example, when having people estimate the height of the tallest redwood tree, people tend to provide smaller estimates when you tell them that it’s taller than 80 feet than when you tell them that it’s taller than 200 feet (b/c people are using the 80 and 200 as anchors for their estimate).
Framing effect
Drawing different conclusions from the same information depending on how the information is presented. For instance, they were given this scenario: an unusual disease is expected to kill 600 people and one of two programs can be adopted. Which program would you rather adopt? If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved. If Program B is adopted, there is a 1/3 chance that all 600 people will be saved and 2/3 chance that nobody will be saved. The expected value is the same for both programs, yet people would often prefer one over the other.
We will cover more of this type of work in the next session!
Lily
Lily Tsoi
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Psychology
Boston College