Science can be pretty dull. Except the parts that explain all the oddities of human behaviour. I love that stuff.
I especially love to read about how our sub-conscious just messes up all the time.
Here are some of my favourite theories on cognitive bias:
The Dunning-Kruger Effect.
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability as much higher than it really is.
The Backfire Effect.
The Backfire Effect – which explains the whole Trump-thing.
Survivorship Bias.
Survivorship bias, essentially, is fixating on the winners and the successful. It might make sense to copy what they do to also find success yourself, but therein lies the salty plum: You don’t see or hear about the majority that have crashed and burned. This is significant because it fosters false expectations, distorts the so-called recipe for success, and makes you believe success is more common than it truly is.
Framing.
People use frames to make sense of the world. Framing is a collection of anecdotes and stereotypes that individuals use to interpret events.
…. Unlucky people…crave security and tend to be more anxious, and instead of wading into the sea of random chance open to what may come, they remain fixated on controlling the situation, on seeking a specific goal. As a result, they miss out on the thousands of opportunities that may float by….
….the people who considered themselves lucky, and who then did actually demonstrate luck was on their side over the course of a decade, tended to place themselves into situations where anything could happen more often and thus exposed themselves to more random chance than did unlucky people…
I like this infographic.
Last but not least.
The best summary of all the biases can be found here.
