Cognitive biases

We see the world not through a window but through a mirror.

We always see the world through the contents of our mind. Our belief systems, societal ideas , culture we are exposed to form a kind of lens through which we see and interact with the world around. We identify with them in such a rigid way that we forget that it just a lens.

Cognition - A mental process of understanding or knowing anything through  awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.

Since we are constantly processing some form information , due to various reasons we land up taking in information in the form of many biases. The concept of cognitive bias was first introduced by researchers Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972. Since then, researchers have described a number of different types of biases that affect decision-making in a wide range of areas

Cognitive bias - A kind of error in thinking that occurs, mostly unconsciously , when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and it affects the interactions , decisions and judgments that they make.

Here are the cognitive biases categorised in psychology and some memories of having seen or lived through these biases

The Confirmation Bias

It is the tendency to process information that confirms our existing beliefs. Through this bias, people tend to favour information that reinforces the things they already think or believe.

Remember in high school when your friend told you some bad gossip about another girl she didn't like and anything spoken about her , you would view in a bad lens anyway. You grew up and realised you were silly and she was probably a nice girl after all.

The Hindsight Bias

It is the tendency to see events, even random ones, as more predictable than they are. It's also commonly referred to as the "I knew it all along" phenomenon.

I remember the time when I had watched Dhai Akshar Prem Ke and had a strong feeling Abhishek and Aishwarya would marry someday and have kids. When I had told my friends , no one cared. When they actually got married , I remember telling my friends - "I so knew it! I knew it even before they did!" .. I landed up overestimating my ability to make predictions since then and have had several times when I have made a fool of myself.

The Anchoring Bias

The anchoring bias is the tendency to be overly influenced by the first piece of information that we hear.

Doctors can become susceptible to the anchoring bias when diagnosing patients which can create a completely wrong diagnosis. I remember going to a doctor who saw me and felt weight was the biggest issue. He thought if I loose all the weight, my body will do better. He gave many medicines without considering other factors affecting. The effect of it was both emotional and physical health getting worse.

The Misinformation Effect

The misinformation effect is the tendency for memories to be heavily influenced by things that happened after the actual event itself.

A person who witnesses a car accident or crime might believe that their recollection is crystal clear, but after investigation people have found that memory is surprisingly susceptible to even very subtle influences.

The Actor-Observer Bias

The actor-observer bias is the tendency to attribute our actions to external influences and other people's actions to internal ones. The way we perceive others and how we attribute their actions hinges on a variety of variables, but it can be heavily influenced by whether we are the actor or the observer in a situation.

This is something we all face everyday at work. A recent incident, there was some update I was following up with a developer. Two days later I get a mail saying "I have already sent the mail". I checked and rechecked in all my folders but didn't seem to have received it. I asked the developer's manager to send the mail as I have not received it in a meeting.The developer's manager said he will send. He sent it and received a failure notification for the email. He realised the developer had to rename the attachment and that's the reason why the mails were not going. When the manager received the failure notification , he said "Oh the mails are actually not going" which clearly indicated they believed i'm saying I didn't receive for some kind of egoic reasons. In this case, I was the actor and the developer's manager was the observer.

There are many such biases that influence us. It's good to take note of these and catch them to better process what we take in constantly.