Cognitive Bias Research Paper

567 Words3 Pages

1- Define five cognitive biases which distort our belief formation. Give an example of each from your own experience. 1- Anchoring Bias: When people are trying to make a decision, they often use an anchor or focal point as a reference or starting point. In addition, People make estimates by starting from an initial value that is adjusted to yield the final answer. For example, imagine that you are buying a TV. You read online that the average price of the vehicle you are interested in is 5000 Dhs. When you are shopping at shopping mall, the dealer offers you the same opition for 4,500 Dhs, which you quickly accept - after all, it 's 500 Dhs less than what you were expecting to pay. Except, the TV dealer across town is offering the exact same offer for just 3000 Dhs, a …show more content…

For example, when the news reporters use propaganda to tell the public how well American soldiers are doing in Iraq, when there really is more to it. 3- Hindsight Bias: The term hindsight bias refers to the tendency people have to view events as more predictable than they really are. After an event, people often believe that they knew the outcome of the event before it actually happened. For example, when I feel nervous to take an exam for which you waited to study until the very last minute. When you take the exam, you feel unsure about the results; however, when your grade comes back a B+, you exclaim to your friends, “I was sure that I’d aced that exam!” and actually believe it in hindsight. 4- The self-serving bias: is a type of cognitive bias that involves attributing our successes to internal characteristics and blaming failures on outside forces. For example, A student fails an exam. But all student blames the teacher and accuses the professor of including "trick questions" on the