What can you say about your brain?
Do you think it to be a super perfect machine that hardly malfunctions? The truth is, the brain has its own flaws which are known as cognitive biases.
Right now we’re going to explore some of the most common and incredible cognitive biases that you need to know about. You may have even fallen into one or two of these brain traps at some point in your life. Let’s dive in!
1. Planning Mistake
Have you ever thought a task at hand would take less time than it actually would? If so, you’ve experienced planning mistake.
We also tend to visualize the results of the task with high optimism — we even go overboard sometimes.
It’s also good to know that when we plan the time for a certain task for another person, we still believe that they’ll take more time than they actually will.
2. Information Cascade
This cognitive bias is prevalent among us — you must have experienced it several different times in the course of your life.
It’s simply when people believe the most popular information or the ones that prevail in public discourse.
Let’s face it; most of us like to make decisions based on the choices or opinions of others. Also, we rarely doubt the events covered by all news broadcasts and stuff.
3. Underestimation of Inaction
Have you ever felt like inaction is better than action? The thing is, failure to take action where some are expected is not a good choice — it could even turn out to be a dangerous mistake.
This brain trap is still common among people despite its implications.
4. Choice-supportive Bias
This cognitive bias is also known as post-purchase rationalization and sometimes called “customer Stockholm syndrome” It’s a situation where everyone wants to believe the purchase was worth the money irrespective of faults or defects — it typically happens after buying an expensive product or service.
5. Endowment Effect
This is yet another bias that occurs when we place significant value on an item that we own regardless of its price in the market.
In other words, people are ready to sell something they cherish at an exorbitant price than they’d pay themselves.
For example, if you owned a car for two years and used it to spend quality time with your family, your sentimental attachment to the car may cause you to place a higher value on it than a similar vehicle at the dealership.
6. Fundamental Attribution Error
Fundamental attribution error is our tendency to overemphasize internal explanations for someone’s behavior while failing to consider the situational influences.
Ring a bell? Also, we tend to believe that our successes are as a result of our personal traits and failures are as a result of external factors.
7. Illusion of Transparency
For starters, not everyone can read your mental state as well as you think. Most people tend to overestimate people’s ability to understand their feelings from their facial expressions.
Well, the thing is, almost no one has the slightest idea about your feelings.
8. Status Quo Bias
Finally, status quo bias is a cognitive bias that had to do with our preference for familiarity. Most of us tend to be unresponsive to change and prefer things stay the way they are.
This makes us believe that the potential gains from other options won’t be up to what you get from the status quo.
So what do you think about these brain traps? Have you experienced any of them lately? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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