A Visual Study Guide to

Cognitive
Biases
Prepared by Eric Fernandez - RoyalSocietyOfAccountPlanning.blogspot.com
This document is a study guide
It’s for anyone who is trying to memorize all of the cognitive
biases so they can better understand human thought and
behavior. It’s especially recommended for account planners,
marketers, and students of psychology / cognitive science.
Within, you will find each bias presented with a short description
and an image to help aid the memory. Clicking on each bias will
take you directly to the wiki page where you can learn more.

The biases are organized into slides

that can be printed and mounted to
mat board to make study guide cards.

color printer spray mount creative dept. mat board cutting board
“The beginning of
wisdom, is the
definition of terms”
- Socrates
What is a cognitive bias?
Cognitive biases are psychological tendencies
that cause the human brain to draw incorrect
conclusions.

Such biases are thought to be a form of "cognitive

shortcut", often based upon rules of thumb, and
include errors in statistical judgment, social
attribution, and memory.

These biases are a common outcome of human

thought, and often drastically skew the reliability of
anecdotal and legal evidence. The phenomenon is
studied in cognitive science and social psychology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias
History

Amos Tversky Daniel Kahneman

The notion of cognitive biases was introduced by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972.
and grew out of their experience of people's innumeracy, or inability to reason intuitively with the
greater orders of magnitude. They and their colleagues demonstrated several replicable ways in which
human judgments and decisions differ from rational choice theory. They explained these differences in
terms of heuristics; rules which are simple for the brain to compute but introduce systematic errors. For
instance the availability heuristic, when the ease with which something comes to mind is used to
indicate how often (or how recently) it has been encountered.

These experiments grew into the heuristics and biases research program which spread beyond
academic psychology into other disciplines including medicine and political science. It was a major
factor in the emergence of behavioral economics, earning Kahneman a Nobel Prize in 2002. Tversky
and Kahneman developed prospect theory as a more realistic alternative to rational choice theory.
Other biases have been demonstrated in separate experiments, such as the confirmation bias
demonstrated by Peter C. Wason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias
conte
nts

The 19 social The 8 memory

biases biases

The 42 decision- The 36 probability /

making biases belief biases
The 19
social biases
The 19 social biases The 19 social biases
Forer effect / Barnum effect System justification effect /
The tendency to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their
personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are
in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.
Status Quo Bias
The tendency to defend and bolster the status quo. Existing social,
For example, horoscopes.
economic, and political arrangements tend to be preferred, and
alternatives disparaged sometimes even at the expense of individual
Ingroup bias and collective self-interest. (See also status quo bias.)

The tendency for people to give preferential

treatment to others they perceive to be
members of their own groups.
Dunning-Kruger / Superiority Bias
Overestimating one's desirable qualities, and underestimating undesirable
qualities, relative to other people. Also known as Superiority bias
Self-fulfilling prophecy (also known as "Lake Wobegon effect", "better-than-average effect",
"superiority bias", or Dunning-Kruger effect).
The tendency to engage in behaviors that elicit results which
will (consciously or not) confirm existing attitudes.
Illusion of asymmetric insight
Halo effect People perceive their knowledge of their peers to surpass their peers'
knowledge of them.
The tendency for a person's positive or negative traits to "spill
over" from one area of their personality to another in others'
perceptions of them (see also physical attractiveness stereotype).
Herd instinct
Ultimate attribution error Common tendency to adopt the opinions and follow the
behaviors of the majority to feel safer and to avoid conflict.
Similar to the fundamental attribution error, in this error a
person is likely to make an internal attribution to an entire
group instead of the individuals within the group.
Illusion of transparency
False consensus effect People overestimate others' ability to know them, and they also
overestimate their ability to know others.
The tendency for people to overestimate the degree to
which others agree with them.

Fundamental attribution error /

Self-serving bias /
Actor-observer bias
Behavioral confirmation effect The tendency for people to over-emphasize personality-based
The tendency to claim more responsibility for successes than explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-
failures. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same
evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial behavior (see also actor-observer bias, group attribution error,
to their interests (see also group-serving bias). positivity effect, and negativity effect).

Notational bias = Projection bias

A form of cultural bias in which the notational conventions of The tendency to unconsciously assume that others share the
recording data biases the appearance of that data toward (or away same or similar thoughts, beliefs, values, or positions.
from) the system upon which the notational schema is based.

Egocentric bias Outgroup homogeneity bias

us them Individuals see members of their own group as being relatively
Occurs when people claim more responsibility for themselves
more varied than members of other groups.
for the results of a joint action than an outside observer would.

Just-world phenomenon Trait ascription bias

The tendency for people to believe that the world is just and I You The tendency for people to view themselves as relatively variable in terms of
therefore people "get what they deserve." personality, behavior and mood while viewing others as much more predictable.
The 8
memory biases
The 8 memory biases The 8 memory biases

Suggestibility Rosy retrospection

A form of misattribution where The tendency to rate past events
ideas suggested by a questioner more positively than they had actually
are mistaken for memory. rated them when the event occurred.

Reminiscence bump Self-serving bias

The effect that people tend to Perceiving oneself responsible for
recall more personal events from desirable outcomes but not
adolescence and early adulthood responsible for undesirable ones.
than from other lifetime periods.

Egocentric bias
Cryptomnesia / Recalling the past in a
False memory self-serving manner, e.g.
A form of misattribution where a remembering one's exam grades
memory is mistaken for imagination, as being better than they were, or
or the confusion of true memories remembering a caught fish as
with false memories. being bigger than it was.

Hindsight bias
Consistency bias Filtering memory of past events
Incorrectly remembering one's past through present knowledge, so that
attitudes and behaviour as resembling those events look more predictable
present attitudes and behavior. than they actually were; also known as
the 'I-knew-it-all-along effect'.
The 42 decision-
making biases
The 42 decision-making biases The 42 decision-making biases

Negativity bias
Hyperbolic discounting Phenomenon by which humans
The tendency for people to have a
pay more attention to and give
stronger preference for more
more weight to negative than
immediate payoffs relative to later
positive experiences or other
payoffs, where the tendency
kinds of information.
increases the closer to the present
both payoffs are.
Interloper effect /
Consultation paradox
Irrational escalation The tendency to value third party
The tendency to make irrational consultation as objective, confirming,
decisions based upon rational and without motive. Also consultation
decisions in the past or to justify paradox, the conclusion that solutions
actions already taken. proposed by existing personnel within
an organization are less likely to
receive support than from those
recruited for that purpose.

Omission bias
The tendency to judge
Normalcy bias
harmful actions as worse, or
The refusal to plan for, or
less moral, than equally
react to, a disaster which
harmful omissions (inactions).
has never happened before.

Mere exposure effect Neglect of probability 

The tendency to completely
The tendency for people to express
disregard probability when making
undue liking for things merely
a decision under uncertainty.
because they are familiar with them.
The 42 decision-making biases The 42 decision-making biases

Focusing effect Framing

Using an approach or description
Prediction bias occurring when
of the situation or issue that is
people place too much importance
too narrow. Also framing effect –
on one aspect of an event; causes
drawing different conclusions
error in accurately predicting the
based on how data is presented.
utility of a future outcome.

Experimenter's
or Expectation bias
Illusion of control The tendency for experimenters to
The tendency for human beings
believe, certify, and publish data that
to believe they can control or at
agree with their expectations for the
least influence outcomes that
outcome of an experiment, and to
they clearly cannot.
disbelieve, discard, or downgrade
the corresponding weightings for
data that appear to conflict with
those expectations.
Outcome bias
The tendency to judge a decision
by its eventual outcome instead of
Information bias
The tendency to seek information
based on the quality of the decision
even when it cannot affect action.
at the time it was made.

Post-purchase Extraordinarity bias

The tendency to value an object
rationalization more than others in the same
The tendency to persuade oneself
category as a result of an
through rational argument that a
extraordinarity of that object that
purchase was a good value.
does not, in itself, change the value.
The 42 decision-making biases The 42 decision-making biases

Planning fallacy Semmelweis reflex

The tendency to underestimate The tendency to reject new
task-completion times. evidence that contradicts an
established paradigm.

Déformation
professionnelle Not Invented Here
The tendency to look at things The tendency to ignore that a
according to the conventions of product or solution already exists,
one's own profession, forgetting because its source is seen as an
any broader point of view. "enemy" or as "inferior".

Impact bias
The tendency for people to Moral credential effect
overestimate the length or The tendency of a track record of
the intensity of the impact of non-prejudice to increase
future feeling states. subsequent prejudice.

Bias blind spot Base rate fallacy

The tendency not to Ignoring available statistical
compensate for one's data in favor of particulars.
own cognitive biases.
The 42 decision-making biases The 42 decision-making biases

Distinction bias
Confirmation bias The tendency to view two
The tendency to search for options as more dissimilar
or interpret information in a when evaluating them
way that confirms one's simultaneously than when
preconceptions. evaluating them separately.

Choice- Contrast effect

supportive bias The enhancement or diminishing
The tendency to remember of a weight or other measurement
one's choices as better when compared with a recently
than they actually were. observed contrasting object.

Endowment effect
/ Loss aversion Bandwagon effect
"the fact that people often The tendency to do (or believe)
demand much more to give up things because many other people
an object than they would be do (or believe) the same. Related to
willing to pay to acquire it". groupthink and herd behaviour.
(see also sunk cost effects)

Congruence bias Denomination effect

The tendency to test The tendency to spend more money
hypotheses exclusively when it is denominated in small
through direct testing, in amounts (e.g. coins) rather than
contrast to tests of possible large amounts (e.g. bills).
alternative hypotheses.
The 42 decision-making biases The 42 decision-making biases

Wishful thinking
Selective perception The formation of beliefs and the
The tendency for expectations to making of decisions according to what
affect perception. is pleasing to imagine instead of by
appeal to evidence or rationality.

0
Restraint bias
The tendency to overestimate
Zero-risk bias
Preference for reducing a small risk to zero
one's ability to show restraint
over a greater reduction in a larger risk.
in the face of temptation.

Reactance
Von Restorff effect The urge to do the opposite of what
The tendency for an item that "stands someone wants you to do out of a need
out like a sore thumb" to be more likely to resist a perceived attempt to constrain
to be remembered than other items. your freedom of choice.

Pseudocertainty effect Status quo bias

The tendency to make risk-averse + The tendency for people to like things to stay

-
choices if the expected outcome is relatively the same (see also loss aversion,
positive, but make risk-seeking endowment effect, and system justification).
choices to avoid negative outcomes.

Need for Closure

Money illusion The need to reach a verdict in important
The tendency of people to matters; to have an answer and to escape
concentrate on the nominal (face the feeling of doubt and uncertainty. The
value) of money rather than its personal context (time or social pressure)
value in terms of purchasing power. might increase this bias.
The 35 probability
/ belief biases
The 35 probability / belief biases The 35 probability / belief biases

Texas sharpshooter fallacy

Positive outcome bias The fallacy of selecting or adjusting a
The tendency to overestimate the hypothesis after the data is collected,
probability of good things happening making it impossible to test the hypothesis
to them (see also wishful thinking, fairly. Refers to the concept of firing shots
optimism bias, and valence effect). at a barn door, drawing a circle around the
best group, and declaring that to be
the target.

Pareidolia 
Telescoping effect A vague and random stimulus (often an
The effect that recent events image or sound) is perceived as
appear to have occurred more significant, e.g., seeing images of
remotely and remote events appear animals or faces in clouds, the man in
to have occurred more recently. the moon, and hearing hidden
messages on records played in reverse.

Survivorship bias
The tendency to concentrate on Outcome bias
the people or things that The tendency to judge a decision
"survived" some process and by its eventual outcome instead of
ignoring those that didn't, or based on the quality of the decision
arguing that a strategy is effective
at the time it was made.
given the winners, while ignoring
the large amount of losers.

Selection bias Disregard of regression

A distortion of evidence or toward the mean
data that arises from the way The tendency to expect extreme
that the data are collected. performance to continue.
The 35 probability / belief biases The 35 probability / belief biases

Gambler's fallacy
Overconfidence effect The tendency to think that future
Excessive confidence in one's own probabilities are altered by past
answers to questions. For example, events, when in reality they are
for certain types of question, answers unchanged. Results from an
that people rate as "99% certain" turn erroneous conceptualization of the
out to be wrong 40% of the time. Law of large numbers. For example,
"I've flipped heads with this coin five
times consecutively, so the chance of
tails coming out on the sixth flip is
Observer- much greater than heads."
expectancy effect
When a researcher expects a
given result and therefore
unconsciously manipulates an Clustering illusion
experiment or misinterprets The tendency to see patterns where
data in order to find it (see also actually none exist. Gilovich example:
subject-expectancy effect). "OXXXOXXXOXXOOOXOOXXOO"

Hindsight bias
Sometimes called the Illusory correlation
"I-knew-it-all-along" effect, the Beliefs that inaccurately suppose a
tendency to see past events relationship between a certain
as being predictable. type of action and an effect.

Hawthorne effect Last illusion

The tendency to perform or
The belief that someone
perceive differently when one
must know what is going on.
knows they are being observed.
The 35 probability / belief biases The 35 probability / belief biases

Availability cascade
Availability heuristic A self-reinforcing process in which a
Estimating what is more likely by collective belief gains more and
what is more available in memory, more plausibility through its
which is biased toward vivid, unusual, increasing repetition in public
or emotionally charged examples. discourse (or "repeat something long
enough and it will become true").

Belief bias Conjunction fallacy

An effect where someone's
evaluation of the logical strength
of an argument is biased by the
> The tendency to assume that
specific conditions are more
probable than general ones.
believability of the conclusion.

Ambiguity effect
The tendency to avoid options for
which missing information makes
Ostrich effect the probability seem "unknown".
Ignoring an obvious
(negative) situation.

Capability bias
The tendency to believe that the
Attentional bias  closer average performance is
to a target, the tighter the
The tendency to neglect relevant
distribution of the data set.
data when making judgments of a
correlation or association.

Authority bias
Disposition effect The tendency to value an
ambiguous stimulus (e.g., an art
The tendency to sell assets that
performance) according to the
have increased in value but hold
opinion of someone who is seen
assets that have decreased in value.
as an authority on the topic.
The 35 probability / belief biases The 35 probability / belief biases

Stereotyping 
Expecting a member of a group
to have certain characteristics
Recency effect
without having actual information / Peak-end rule
about that individual. The tendency to weigh recent
events more than earlier events .

Subjective validation
perception that something is true if
a subject's belief demands it to be Primacy effect

1st
true. Also assigns perceived The tendency to weigh initial events
connections between coincidences. more than subsequent events.

Subadditivity effect 
>
The tendency to judge probability
of the whole to be less than the
probabilities of the parts. Optimism bias
The tendency to be over-
optimistic about the outcome
of planned actions.
Well travelled road effect
Underestimation of the duration taken
to traverse oft-traveled routes and
over-estimate the duration taken to
traverse less familiar routes.

Neglect of prior
Anchoring effect base rates effect
The tendency to rely too heavily, or
The tendency to neglect known
"anchor," on a past reference or on
odds when reevaluating odds
one trait or piece of information when
in light of weak evidence.
making decisions (also called
"insufficient adjustment").