The Online Course Exploring the Illusions of the Mind That Make us Unreasonable, Irrational, and Wrong.
This course is sponsored by and heaviliy discounted thanks to
The Biased Brain by Bo Bennett, PhD.
Self-paced, Online, Lessons
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
Approximate Hours of Course Media
In this course, you will learn a new cognitive bias, effect, or heuristic each day and understand why others (and you) make poor decisions, bad arguments, and hold false beliefs. All cognitive biases in this course are involved in the reasoning process and can lead to accepting bad arguments. The first and most important way to combat the negative effects of cognitive biases is to recognize them. This course will help you do that.
Become a Cognitive Bias Whiz and Understand Logical Fallacies Better
In the early 1970s, two behavioral researchers, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky pioneered the field of behavioral economics through their work with cognitive biases and heuristics, which like logical fallacies, deal with errors in reasoning. The main difference, however, is that logical fallacies require an argument whereas cognitive biases and heuristics (mental shortcuts) refer to our default pattern of thinking. Sometimes there is crossover. Logical fallacies can be the result of a cognitive bias, but having biases (which we all do) does not mean that we have to commit logical fallacies. Consider the bandwagon effect, a cognitive bias that demonstrates the tendency to believe things because many other people believe them. This cognitive bias can be found in the logical fallacy, appeal to popularity.
Everybody is doing X.
Therefore, X must be the right thing to do.
The cognitive bias is the main reason we commit this fallacy. However, if we just started working at a soup kitchen because all of our friends were working there, this wouldn’t be a logical fallacy, although the bandwagon effect would be behind our behavior. The appeal to popularity is a fallacy because it applies to an argument.
When we understand cognitive biases, we understand the reasons behind countless bad arguments, bad reasoning, and bad ideas.
* Thanks in part to the sponsorship of The Biased Brain by Bo Bennett, PhD, this course is made available to you for free. Sponsors have a subtle mention under the course title and links in the course resources - there are no intrusive image-based ads or audio ads in the course.
Welcome to this online course all about cognitive biases! In researching for this course, I found that about 30% of the covered biases had good explanation videos created by others, so I used those when possible. For the other 70% or so, I created my own videos that are part of this course. Each video ranges from 30 seconds to just under 10 minutes, with most in the 3 minute range.
Each lesson has a discussion question. You can choose to answer it or not. Answer for all lessons, no lessons, or some lessons. This is your course and you get out of it what you put into it.
Understanding how the human brain works is very useful knowledge to have, as will be explained through this course.
Enjoy!
Bo Bennett, PhD
A tendency to attribute one’s own actions to external causes, while attributing other people’s behaviors to internal causes.
Example: “I tripped because of the uneven pavement. You tripped because you are a klutz.”
A bias in decision making where people tend to select options for which the probability of a favorable outcome is known, over an option for which the probability of a favorable outcome is unknown.
Example: “I’ll go with the double cheeseburger over the house special burger. I have had the double cheeseburger before, and I know it is good.”
A bias in decision making where one relies too heavily on the first piece of information offered (or the “anchor”).
Example: “The guy asking for donations asked me if I wanted to give $100 or even just $20. So I gave him $20 which appears to be the minimum.” Actually, they will take any amount as a donation. Those proposed amounts were anchors to get higher donations—and it worked.
The tendency for a person’s perception to be affected by his or her recurring thoughts at the time.
Example: (As Jimmy is watching Shark Week on television). “Jimmy, you want to go for a swim in the ocean?” “No! Are you freakin’ nuts!?”
The tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of a general authority figure (not one specific to the topic at hand) and be more influenced by that opinion.
Example: “Leonard Nimoy said on In Search Of that ancient aliens might have built the pyramids. Spock doesn’t lie!”
The tendency to favor suggestions from automated decision-making systems and to ignore contradictory information made without automation, even if it is correct.
Example: “This Facebook online quiz said that I am most like the Disney princess, Belle! Although my wife says I am more like Mulan, I agree with the Facebook quiz.”
A self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse (or “repeat something long enough, and it will become true”).
Example: Cults that repeat the same ideas over and over brainwash their members.
A mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method or decision.
Example: Believing that driving across the country is safer than taking a plane because you remember seeing a horrific plane crash on the news.
When one’s beliefs are challenged by contradicting evidence, the belief becomes stronger.
Example: “You can give me all the evidence you want, I know what I know! The more evidence you try to give me against my belief, the more I am convinced that I am right.”
When one does something primarily because others are doing it.
Example: “Mom, I am going with Bobby and Jimmy to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.”
The tendency to judge the strength of arguments based on how plausible their conclusions are rather than how strong the argument itself is.
Example: (To a person who already believes in God) “God exists because… look at that beautiful sunset!”
If person A has done a favor for person B, person A is more likely to do another favor for person B than if person B did a favor for person A.
Example: “Can you take out my garbage on Tuesday?” “Why not, I did it last Tuesday.”
One’s inability to recognize one’s own biases.
Example: “Of course you are voting that way. This is because of the confirmation bias. I, on the other hand, am voting the other way because I am reasonable.”
The bias that causes us to find individuals more attractive when they are in a group.
Example: “Those guys are gorgeous!… Oh, wait. Now that they split up, I am looking at them individually and they really aren’t that good looking.”
The inability to remember anything before age two or three.
Example: “My first memory is of me sitting on my father’s lap when he told me about his grandfather. I think I was about three years old then.”
The tendency to retroactively ascribe positive attributes to an option one has selected. This is also known as post-purchase rationalization.
Example: “That $40 bar of soap I bought at the multi-level-marketing seminar is well worth it because it is GMO-free!”
The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories.
Example: “I know my political position is right because all of the media outlets I subscribe to also agree with me.”
A bias in research where one has an over-reliance on direct testing of a hypothesis while ignoring indirect testing.
Example: If a researcher wants to know if smoking pot leads to homelessness, she might just (incorrectly) look at how many homeless people smoked pot before being homeless. The indirect testing needed might be also to see how many successful people smoked pot before they were successful.
A concept within cognitive psychology that has to do with how environmental factors affect our perception of stimuli.
Example: A joke might be hilarious at a comedy club, but the same joke at a funeral is not at all funny.
Adding or subtracting value to subjects or objects based on how we analyze them as compared to what we perceive as a normal case.
Example: People who are happy with their salary are later unhappy with their salary when they find out that their coworkers are getting paid more.
The tendency to tell people what we think they want to hear.
Example: “That tattoo of your mother on your arm really suits you!”
The tendency to more easily recognize and distinguish between faces that match one’s own race (or the race with which one is more familiar).
Example: The quasi-racist remark “they all look the same to me” is based on this effect. More accurately, people of unfamiliar races look more similar to each other than people of one’s own race.
Assuming that others with whom you are communicating have the same background knowledge about the topic(s) as you do.
Example: Many bad teachers assume that the students already know what the teacher knows, so they lose the students in the process of teaching.
Since choices are often made relative to what is being offered rather than absolute preferences, by introducing an option that is of lesser value but similar to one of the other options, one’s choice can be manipulated whereas he or she would tend to choose the higher value option that is similar to the “decoy” option introduced.
Example: If you offer 100 people $10 or a pen worth $10, most of them will choose the $10. If you add in a third option, a cheap pen worth 25 cents, more people will then choose the expensive pen.
Refers to a set of beliefs used as a shield for oneself against the fear that one will be the victim or cause of a serious mishap.
Example: “I will never get into a drunk driving accident. I know my limits!”
People are less likely to spend larger bills than their equivalent value in smaller bills.
Example: If an item cost $20, and person A has a $20 bill, and person B has 20 $1 bills, all other things being equal, person B will be more likely to buy the item.
The tendency of investors to sell assets whose price has increased, while keeping assets that have dropped in value.
Example: Stocks A and B were both purchased for $10 each. Stock A is now worth $20, and stock B is now worth $5. The investor is more likely to sell stock A with all other factors considered equal.
When people are too ignorant to realize the extent of their own ignorance.
Example: Politician X thinks he can easily solve the problems we have in the Middle East. This is because he knows very little about the problems.
The psychological observation that people’s judgments of the unpleasantness of painful experiences depend very little on the duration of those experiences.
Example: If person A has his hand in ice-cold water for 10 seconds, and person B has his hand in ice-cold water for 30 seconds, both people are likely to rate the unpleasantness of the experience the same.
The tendency to rely too heavily on one’s own perspective and/or have a higher opinion of oneself than reality dictates.
Example: “The world is full of beautiful women everywhere one goes!” (Says the guy who has never left his Swedish village where women outnumber men 4 to 1).
The perceptive difference between attitudes, preferences, and behaviors while in a visceral state versus in a calm state.
Example: “I can’t imagine why that woman fainted when seeing the decapitated head. We see these in movies all the time.”
The hypothesis that people ascribe more value to things merely because they own them.
Example: John would never buy a trinket for $5, but if he were given the trinket, he probably wouldn’t sell it for $5 either.
This is a research-related bias. This is the tendency for researchers (experimenters) to believe, certify, and publish data that agree with their expectations for the outcome of an experiment, and to disbelieve, discard, or downgrade the corresponding weightings for data that appear to conflict with those expectations.
Example: A Christian researcher does a study on the effectiveness of prayer. She finds no effect, so she does not publish the study with the negative results.
The tendency to attribute extrinsic motives (e.g. money) rather than intrinsic motives (e.g. education) when weighing the motives of others rather than oneself.
Example: When a manager thinks more money will be a greater motivator to her staff rather than a recognition program.
The tendency to overestimate the extent to which one’s own opinions, beliefs, preferences, values, and habits are normal and typical of those of others.
Example: “Nobody likes going to the movies anymore. I have not been to the movies in years.”
An apparent recollection of an event that did not actually occur.
Example: Many innocent people were sent to prison based on the false memories of children who “recalled” sexual abuse—thanks to a process known as suggestion by therapists who essentially implanted the memories.
The tendency to weigh attributes and factors unevenly, putting more importance on some aspects and less on others.
Example: Dating a horrible human being just because she has big boobs.
The tendency to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of one’s personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them but that are, in fact, vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.
Example: I know very much about you. Yes, you, the person who is reading this right now. You are smart, and you appreciate the value of using reason. You are the kind of person who is not afraid to read a book to expand your level of knowledge.
The tendency to react to a particular choice in different ways depending on how it is presented.
Example: (in universe #1) “We can either go see that awesome movie that got rave reviews, or stay home and watch TV.” “Let’s go see the movie!”
(in universe #2) “We can either leave the comfort of our own home and go see that movie, or relax at home watch that amazing new show on TV.” “Let’s stay home!”
The tendency to notice instances of a particular phenomenon once one starts to look for it, and to, therefore, believe erroneously that the phenomenon occurs more often than it does.
Example: You start to look for “signs” that you should take a new job, and you start to see them everywhere. Actually, you are just interpreting common events in such a way that support your conscious or unconscious desire to take or reject the job.
The tendency to limit oneself to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used.
Example: Running out to the garage to get a hammer to hammer in a small nail to hang a picture frame, when you are surrounded by other objects, such as paperweights, that can do the job just fine.
The tendency to explain someone’s behavior based on internal factors and to underestimate the influence that external factors have on another person’s behavior.
Example: “Billy is acting out because he is an unruly kid with no discipline.” Actually, Billy is acting out because he is seven, and he has been stuck at grandma’s house all day sitting down trying to be polite.
The tendency to better remember information if it is generated from one’s own mind rather than simply read.
Example: Stories that are made up are better remembered by the person making up the story than if that person read the story.
The tendency to forget information that can easily be found online by using Internet search engines such as Google.
Example: “What is the capital of Wyoming?” “Let me see… ‘Siri, what is the capital of Wyoming?’” “Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming.”
People’s tendency to believe either (1) that the characteristics of an individual group member are reflective of the group as a whole, or (2) that a group’s decision outcome must reflect the preferences of individual group members, even when information is available suggesting otherwise.
Example: “That white cop unjustly shot that black kid. White people are racist!”
The tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another area.
Example: “My teacher really knows his stuff when it comes to math. I bet he is also a whiz at chess!”
The tendency to be overconfident about the correctness of answers to difficult questions and underconfident about answers to easy questions.
Example: This frequently happens with multiple choice questions where people consistently second guess their answers to easier questions and are more confident on the ones that they actually get wrong.
The tendency to see a past event as having been predictable, despite there having been little or no objective basis for predicting it.
Example: “I knew that he was going to hit a home run!”
The tendency to better remember humorous items than non-humorous ones.
Example: Memorize three mental images. Later try to recall them all and see which you remember better. 1) a man walking by a lake 2) a woman running up a mountain, and 3) Will Ferrel streaking through the quad.
The tendency for one to increasingly choose a smaller, sooner reward over a larger, later reward as the delay occurs sooner rather than later in time.
Example: People would rather have $10 now than $20 a year from now, even though that $20 represents a 100% increase over 1 year.
The tendency of individuals to offer greater aid when a specific, identifiable person (or “victim”) is observed under hardship, as compared to a large, vaguely defined group with the same need.
Example: “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.”
The tendency to place a disproportionately high value on products one partially creates.
Example: “Do you like this table? It is my favorite piece of furniture.” “It looks like an ordinary table.” “Yea, but I assembled it!”
The tendency to perceive one’s knowledge of others to surpass other people’s knowledge of them.
Example: We think we know our spouse better than he or she knows us.
A set of attributional biases consisting of illusions of influence, insight, and benevolence.
Example: “I just managed not to fall off that cliff! There must be a guardian angel looking out for me!”
The tendency for people to overestimate how well they understand others’ personal mental states.
Example: “Timmy is fine. He’s just upset because he didn’t win.” Actually, Timmy is upset because his dad called him a “loser.”
The tendency to believe information to be correct the more it is repeated.
Example: One of the ways the Russians influenced the 2016 presidential election was to flood the Internet with false information and narratives about the Democratic candidate. The more this information was heard, the more it was believed, despite the continual debunking efforts.
The tendency for one to overestimate his or her ability to interpret and predict accurately the outcome when analyzing a set of data that appears to show a consistent pattern.
Example: Wine connoisseurs often think they have a valid method for determining good wine from bad wine when in fact, many blind studies have shown that even of the best of them have a difficult time telling the difference between a $500 bottle of wine and a $10 bottle.
The tendency to perceive a relationship between variables (typically people, events, or behaviors) even when no such relationship exists.
Example: Good luck is frequently associated with rituals or “good luck charms.”
The tendency for one to overestimate his or her own qualities and abilities, relative to others.
Example: In several studies, a vast majority of those interviewed believe that they are better than average when it comes to driving. Of course, only about 50% can be better than average.
The tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of future feeling states.
Example: Sandy thinks she would be miserable for months if she was dumped by Troy. Troy dumped Sandy. Sandy was only miserable for a couple of days and quickly got over it.
The tendency to favor one’s own group.
Example: Choosing to sit next to a person roughly your same age, same gender, and same race rather than someone in one of these different groups.
The tendency to judge the probability of obtaining a sample statistic without respect to the sample size.
Example: Willie thinks that because he played roulette three times and won twice, that if he plays 30 times, he will win about 20 times.
The tendency to make irrational decisions based upon rational decisions in the past or to justify actions already taken.
Example: It was rational to threaten violence as a last resort if country X did not comply with policy Y. Country X did not comply with policy Y, so an attack was launched. This led to a counter attack which led to more attacks until full-blown nuclear war destroyed the entire world. The end.
The tendency to believe one will get what one deserves that often leads to a rationalization of an inexplicable injustice by suggesting things the victim might have done to deserve it.
Example: The idea that homeless people are homeless because they are lazy, uneducated, substance abusers who brought their situation upon themselves.
The tendency to over rely on a familiar tool.
Example: A Freudian psychotherapist might think that most problems are a result of oppressed feelings from childhood.
A type of preference reversal that occurs when the lesser or smaller alternative of a proposition is preferred when evaluated separately, but not evaluated together.
Example: Choosing an expensive $45 pen over a cheap $55 desk clock. However, if both options were presented together, then choosing the $55 desk clock.
The tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains.
Example: One would theoretically do more to protect from losing $100 then he or she would for gaining $100.
The tendency to develop a preference for things merely because of familiarity with them.
Example: One might prefer an old car to a much better new car, simply because one is familiar with the old car.
When a person’s recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event information.
Example: After the riot had broken out, a group of people started the false narrative that an elderly woman was struck by a police officer. Due to this narrative spreading, many of the witnesses of the riot recalled seeing the woman being struck by the police officer (although it never happened).
The tendency to ascribe moral praise or condemnation to a moral agent when they have no control of the factors that brought about the moral judgment.
Example: Carl and Jason go out for a night of drinking at the local bar. They both drive home intoxicated in their separate cars. Carl gets pulled over by a cop and arrested for DUI, while Jason did not. Carl is seen as morally inferior to Jason.
The tendency for negative things to have a greater effect on one’s psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things of equal intensity.
Example: People are more affected emotionally by the death of a stranger than the birth of one.
The tendency to believe that things will always function the way things normally function.
Example: Many people don’t take proper precautions for a potential disaster because of this bias.
The tendency for a researcher’s cognitive bias(es) To cause them to subconsciously influence the participants of an experiment.
Example: If a researcher is investigating ESP, and is determined to prove it exists, she might give the participants subtle facial cues as to which option in the experiment to choose, thus contaminating the results of the experiment.
The tendency to believe that one is at less at risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others.
Example: “Car accidents are horrible, but I am very careful and that won’t happen to me!”
The tendency to ignore a dangerous or risky situation.
Example: Sometimes people will rationalize or make excuses for why they don’t want to do something when the real reason has to do with this bias.
An error made in evaluating the quality of a decision when the outcome of that decision is already known.
Example: When our leaders take a military action, we might support the decision initially. However, if the military action is a failure or leads to bigger problems than it solved, we criticize the leaders for making the decision.
The tendency for one’s confidence in his or her judgments is reliably greater than the objective accuracy of those judgments, especially when confidence is relatively high.
Example: “I know I’m right!”
A psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists.
Example: Seeing Jesus in toast.
The tendency for people to exaggerate the likelihood that negative things will happen to them.
Example: “Society is collapsing!”
The tendency for pictures and images to be more likely remembered than words.
Example: Most marketing includes images for this reason.
The tendency for predictions about how much time will be needed to complete a future task to display an optimism bias and underestimate the time needed.
Example: “I can be ready in 10 minutes.” In fact, it takes the person 20 minutes.
The assumption that one’s tastes or preferences will remain the same over time.
Example: “I can’t imagine life without you!” Earnestly says the guy who just met the girl and had a great first date. Two dates later, he can’t wait to break it off.
The tendency to perceive an outcome as certain while in fact it is uncertain.
Example: “Are you sure you can stop at the store on the way home?” “I’m positive!” Actually, something came up at work, and he didn’t make it to the store.
The tendency to do something different from what someone wants you to do in reaction to a perceived attempt to constrain your freedom of choice.
Example: An employee is asked by his boss to file a report by noon. He doesn’t like being his boss’ puppet, so the employee files the report by 1:00 instead.
The tendency to devalue a proposal if it originates from an antagonist (i.e., some source that the person does not like).
Example: A politician makes an excellent decision that will be of great benefit to the country, but because the politician is a Republican, many liberals think it is a bad decision.
A category of cognitive biases that influence the responses of participants away from an accurate or truthful response.
Example: Most people (non-professionals) who conduct surveys are not well-aware of these biases. Therefore, the results of their surveys can be inaccurate.
The tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control impulsive behavior.
Example: This is a huge problem in dieting, being a faithful spouse, getting work done, and just about every other area of life. Once we realize that we have much less willpower than we think we do, we can control our environment in ways that don’t tempt our restraint (e.g., don’t buy candy for the house when you are on a diet).
The bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups or data for analysis where the necessary randomization is not achieved.
Example: If a researcher is conducting a survey on how much money the average person spends at a mall, and they are doing this in the Macy's department store, they are much more likely to get responses from wealthier people than if they did the survey in the dollar store (all items $1).
The tendency to select, categorize, and analyze stimuli from our environment to create meaningful experiences while blocking out stimuli that contradict our beliefs or expectations.
Example: “Clearly the world is falling apart. Everywhere I look I see hatred and anger.”
In statistics, the self-selection bias arises in any situation in which individuals select themselves into a group, causing a biased sample with nonprobability sampling.
Example: If you are wondering how people like your new website, and have a pop-up window on your website that invites feedback, you are allowing people to comment only if they feel the need. This means, you never hear from those who are indifferent or those who became so frustrated that they didn’t get to the form or don’t want anything to do with it.
The tendency for people to attribute positive events to their own character but attribute negative events to external factors, generally used to protect one’s self-esteem.
Example: Tracy broke up with Tommy. While she simply said, “it’s not working out,” Tommy is convinced it is because Tracy is a “bitch” rather than being open to the possibility that it has something to do with him.
A metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs or paradigms.
Example: Throughout the centuries, scientific facts have met much resistance until they could no longer be ignored, due to strong, conflicting religious beliefs. Even today, there are still those who refuse to accept that the earth is not flat.
The tendency to believe that others are less sexually interested in you than they actually are.
Example: “He is so sweet! He is really loves listening to all my stories about my cats!” No, he doesn’t.
The tendency to dislike and compete with someone who is seen as physically, or mentally better than yourself.
Example: Rod meets Carl for the first time. Carl is good-looking, well-built, and holds a PhD in physics. Rod can’t stand Carl but can’t pinpoint why.
The tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others.
Example: In the survey question that asks, “How often do you have racist thoughts?” Participants are far more likely to downplay that number than report it honestly because they don’t want to be seen as “racist.”
The misattribution of the source of a memory.
Example: Sandy thinks she was abducted by aliens, when in fact, she is confusing actual events and scenes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The tendency to prefer the current state of affairs.
Example: The idea that people generally resist change, is true due to this bias. We pass up good opportunities because we prefer the status quo.
The tendency to judge the probability of the whole to be less than the probabilities of the parts.
Example: If we are asked to estimate the chance that we will die from natural causes, we might guess 50%. If we were provided a list of natural causes of death and asked to estimate each one, that number would likely add up to over 50%. This might have to do with our inability to consider all the components within a whole unless they are detailed for us.
The tendency for a person to consider a statement or another piece of information to be correct if it has any personal meaning or significance to them.
Example: A fortune cookie reads “You will learn something surprising today.” Later that day, you learn that the B train is running late. You recall the fortune cookie, and deem that information “surprising,” while “validating” the claim through your subjective interpretation.
The tendency to believe that what someone says is true or may be true.
Example: Highly suggestible people require very little evidence or good reasons to accept information as true. This explains in part why so many people believe in astrology, Tarot card readings, people who claim to communicate with the dead, etc.
The tendency to defend and bolster the status quo, that is, to see it as good, fair, legitimate, and desirable.
Example: “I know the poor appear disadvantaged, but they are not victims of the system, they are victims of themselves!”
The tendency for one to perceive recent events as being more remote than they are and distant events as being more recent than they are.
Example: “I just went to the doctor no more than a year ago.” Actually, he last went to the doctor three years ago.
CW: There is some vulgarity in this video. If that offends you, do not watch.
The tendency to perceive that mass media messages have a greater effect on others than on oneself.
Example: “People are such suckers when it comes to what they believe in the media!”
The argument that members of an organization give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.
Example: When discussing how the AIDS drug will be distributed in Africa, the committee spent 80% of their time discussing the packaging of the drug.
The tendency to attribute negative outgroup and positive ingroup behavior to internal causes and to attribute positive outgroup and negative ingroup behavior to external causes.
Example: “Liberals like us have a deep compassion for our fellow humans whereas conservatives just care about themselves.”
The tendency to think that a unit of some entity (with certain constraints) is the appropriate and optimal amount.
Example: Americans are getting fatter partly because the portion “small” has increased significantly over the years. Next time you order a “single scoop” of ice cream, notice how many scoops they give you.
The tendency to underestimate one’s achievements and capabilities in relation to others.
Example: If someone is really good at tennis, they might think that others are just as good.
The tendency to prefer the complete elimination of a risk even when alternative options produce a greater reduction in risk (overall).
Example: Travis is offered two bets: 1) he could wager $10 for a 1 in 2 chance at winning $100 or 2) he could wager nothing and get a free $10 bill. He chooses the second option, even though he is clearly better off (statistically) choosing the first option.
The tendency to intuitively judge a situation to be zero-sum (i.e., resources gained by one party are matched by corresponding losses to another party) when it is actually non-zero-sum.
Example: People often object to government programs to take care of the sick because they think the money spent will be “lost,” when in fact, preventative care saves countless dollars in increased productivity, future health care costs, and in other areas. In other words, government-supported health care is not zero-sum.
Bo Bennett's personal motto is "Expose an irrational belief, keep a person rational for a day. Expose irrational thinking, keep a person rational for a lifetime." Much of his work is in the area of education—not teaching people what to think, but how to think. His projects include his books, The Concept: A Critical and Honest Look at God and Religion, Logically Fallacious, the most comprehensive collection of logical fallacies, and Year To Success, a full year course in success. Bo has a podcast/blog called "The Dr. Bo Show" at http://www.TheDrBoShow.com where he takes a critical thinking-, reason-, and science-based approach to issues that matter with the goal of educating and entertaining.
Bo holds a PhD in social psychology, with a master's degree in general psychology and bachelor's degree in marketing. His complete bio along with current projects can be found at BoBennett.com.
