Welcome to cognitive biases! You've mastered spotting logical fallacies in arguments. Now let's explore the mental shortcuts that trick your own brain into making poor decisions.
Engagement Message
These hidden biases affect everyone, including brilliant thinkers. Ready to discover your brain's sneaky tricks?
Think of cognitive biases as your brain's shortcut system. To process information quickly, your brain uses mental shortcuts called heuristics. Usually helpful, but sometimes they lead you astray.
Like a GPS taking you down a closed road—the shortcut seemed logical but caused problems.
Engagement Message
Can you think of a time a mental shortcut led you to the wrong conclusion?
Let's start with confirmation bias—your brain's tendency to seek information that confirms what you already believe while ignoring contradictory evidence.
You love a restaurant, so you focus on positive reviews and dismiss negative ones as "outliers."
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What's a belief you hold strongly—and how often do you seek opposing viewpoints?
Here's anchoring bias in action. The first number you hear becomes an "anchor" that influences your judgment, even when it's irrelevant.
Real estate agents use this—they show overpriced houses first, making reasonably priced ones seem like bargains.
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Have you noticed first impressions affecting your later judgments?
Availability bias makes you judge probability by how easily examples come to mind. Recent, vivid, or emotional events feel more likely than they actually are.
After seeing plane crash news, flying feels dangerous despite statistics showing it's safer than driving.
Engagement Message
What recent news story might be affecting your sense of risk?
These biases shape major life decisions. Confirmation bias affects career choices, anchoring bias influences salary negotiations, and availability bias impacts investment decisions.
The scary part? You rarely notice these biases operating—they feel like rational thinking.
Engagement Message
Which of these biases do you think affects your decisions most?
Understanding biases is the first step to managing them. You can't eliminate these mental shortcuts, but you can recognize when they're likely to mislead you.
Next time, we'll learn specific techniques to counteract these biases and make clearer decisions.
Engagement Message
What's one area where you'd like to make less biased decisions?
Type
Sort Into Boxes
Practice Question
Let's practice identifying different cognitive biases in real scenarios. Match each scenario with the bias it demonstrates:
Labels
- First Box Label: Confirmation Bias
- Second Box Label: Anchoring Bias
First Box Items
- Agreeable news
- Ignore evidence
- Dismiss dissent
Second Box Items
- First price
- Starting anchor
- Reference effect
