Cognitive biases

thumb|upright|An 18th-century Dutch engraving of the peoples of the world. thumb|A stereotypical caricature of a [[villain (i.e. generic melodramatic villain stock character, with handlebar moustache and black top-hat), particularly popular in early-20th-century silent films and melodramas and popularized by Snidely Whiplash]] thumb|Police officers buying doughnuts and [[coffee, an example of perceived stereotypical behavior in North America]] In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about ever

cognitive bias in which incompetent people tend to assess themselves as skilled

tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses

thumb|Satellite photograph of a mesa in the Cydonia region of Mars, often called the "[[Face on Mars" and cited as evidence of extraterrestrial habitation]]Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific but common type of apophenia (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things or ideas).

systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment due to subjective perception of reality

psychological phenomenon whereby individuals give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them, yet which are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people

psychological pattern in which people doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, often internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud"

tendency for positive impressions of a person, company, brand or product in one area to positively influence one's opinion or feelings in other areas

prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior

phenomenon whereby others’ expectations of a target person affect the target person’s performance

thumb|right|A well-known example of opposite mindsets A mindset (also known as mentality especially when considered as biased and closed-minded) refers to an established set of attitudes of a person or group concerning culture, values, philosophy, frame of reference, outlook, or disposition. Person A is said to have a theory of mind (ToM) about person B, relating mindset research to ToM. This may also develop from a person's worldview or beliefs about the meaning of life.

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness, in a group may produce a tendency among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation.

type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed

a defence mechanism in which the human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities

psychological phenomena when an activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled

anxiety to miss information, opportunities, events, experiences, or decisions improving life

logical error of concentrating on the people or things that made it past some selection process and overlooking those that did not, typically because of the latter's lack of visibility

political science theory about the expression of opinion

mistaken belief that more frequent chance events will lead to less frequent chance events, or vice versa, to balance out

effect of psychological interference on reaction time

an effect where an individual depends too heavily on an initial piece of information when making decisions

thumb|right|200px|Cropped version of the original batch-processed image (#035A72) of the "Face on Mars" Apophenia () is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things.

theory in behavioral science, politics, and behavioral economics

phenomenon whereby the rate of uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends increases the more that they have already been adopted by others

illogical conclusions based on correlated events, or belief that unrelated events are causally connected despite the absence of any plausible causal link between them

cognitive bias that assumes that actions will have morally fair and fitting consequences for the actor

decision-making based on what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence or rationality

tendency for people to under-emphasize situational explanations for an individual's observed behavior while over-emphasizing dispositional and personality-based explanations

degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces, have control over their lives

psychological defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors or feelings are justified and explained in a seemingly rational or logical manner to avoid the true explanation

Self-deception or self-delusion is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. Self-deception involves convincing oneself of a truth (or lack of truth) so that one does not reveal any self-knowledge of the deception.

tendency and mental shortcut of preferring an item with more available information

attributional type of cognitive bias whereby people tend to overestimate the extent to which their own opinions, beliefs, preferences, values, and habits are normal and typical of those of others

cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered

set of concepts and theoretical perspectives in social sciences on how individuals, groups, and societies, organize, perceive, and communicate about reality

tendency to perceive past events as more predictable than they actually were at the time

formal fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that specific conditions are more probable than a single general one

process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events

sociological theory stating that "if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences"

the idea that rationality is limited by the tractability of the decision problem, the cognitive limitations of the mind, and the time available to make the decision

any cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem, or to perceive oneself in an overly favorable manner

exaggerated or irrational thought pattern involved in the onset and perpetuation of psychopathological states

Egyptian carvings misinterpreted as depicting helicopters

2011 non-fiction work by Daniel Kahneman

fallacy of leading the evidence to a preconceived conclusion

cognitive bias to think of money in nominal, rather than real, terms

perception of more danger than really exists

human tendency to ignore plants

cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created

psychological phenomenon by which people develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them

cognitive bias that occurs when an individual unknowingly assumes that the others have the same background to understand

cognitive bias of recognizing the impact of biases on the judgment of others, while failing to see the impact of biases on one's own judgment

cognitive bias where people decide on options based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations

cognitive bias

people's tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains, a behavior first identified by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman

Tendency of people to remember pleasant events more than unpleasant ones

error in thinking which involves under-valuing base rate information

an emotional bias, which is a preference for the current state of affairs as opposed to a change

bias in which a person's subjective confidence in their judgements is reliably greater than the objective accuracy of those judgements

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