Cognitive biases are ways of thinking that move away from logical or rational thinking and that tend to be used systematically in various situations. Cognitive biases are quick and intuitive ways to make less laborious judgments or decisions than analytical reasoning that takes all the relevant information into account. Although these cognitive biases are useful, they very often lead to erroneous judgments. This notion of cognitive bias was introduced by two psychologists in the 1970s: Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in order to explain certain tendencies to make irrational decisions in the economic field. Since then, several biases have been identified in cognitive psychology and in social psychology.
Certain cognitive biases are explained by a limitation of cognitive resources: when these are not sufficient to perform the analysis necessary to make a rational judgment, cognitive shortcuts, then called heuristics, allow rapid judgment. Other cognitive biases are more likely to be explained by motivational, emotional or moral factors such as the desire to maintain a positive self-image or to avoid unpleasant cognitive dissonance. We can then cite different cognitive biases.
Confirmation bias is characterized by the tendency to seek and take into account only information that confirms our beliefs while ignoring and discrediting those that contradict our beliefs.
Self-fulfillment bias manifests itself in the tendency to take credit for successes and in the tendency to attribute failures to unfavorable external factors.
The fundamental attribution error is a cognitive bias which consists in overestimating personal factors such as an individual’s personality to explain behavior while underestimating cyclical factors
The halo effect is a cognitive bias that is very present in our society. It is defined by the fact that the perception that one has of a person or a group will be influenced by the opinion that one had beforehand for one of its characteristics. For example, a person perceived as physically beautiful will also be perceived as intelligent and trustworthy. The notoriety effect is also a halo effectctors
Overconfidence is a tendency to overestimate one’s abilities: more than half of people rate their intelligence as being above average.
Negativity bias is about giving more weight to negative experiences than positive ones and remembering them more.
The illusion of correlation is the tendency to perceive a relationship between two unrelated events or to exaggerate a relationship that would actually be weak.
Framing bias is the tendency to be influenced by the way a problem is presented. For example, the decision whether or not to accept surgery is influenced by how the operation is described in terms of success rate or failure rate although the two digits provide the same information.
False consensus bias is the tendency to believe that others agree with us more than they actually do. This bias can be particularly present in closed groups in which members rarely meet people who disagree and who have different preferences and values. Thus, political or religious groups may feel that they have more support than they actually have.
Conformity bias is the tendency to think and act like others do.
Key-Words: shortcuts; self-fulfillment; cyclical; beforehand ; trustworthy