The Ultimate Guide for Cognitive Biases
Cognitive biases describe the irrational errors of human judgements and decision making. These scientific observations affect the way we shop, judge, think, and behave. In this list of cognitive biases, you can find the basic idea behind every biases with examples.
This article is an evolving list supported by dog examples. Enjoy.
Certainty Effect
The tendency for people to outweigh outcomes that are certain compared to outcomes that are possible.
“I would rather get a medium bag of dog food for free with 100% certainty than get a large bag of dog food for free with 80% certainty.”
Confirmation Bias
The tendency to search for, interpret, focus on, and remember information that confirms preexisting beliefs.
“I think Pit bulls are very violent. I saw a Pit bull bark so it must be violent.”
Decoy Effect
The tendency to change preferences between two options when presented with a third option which is completely dominated by option B and partially dominated by option A.
Option A: $3 Small bag of dog treats
Option B: $7 Large bag of dog treats
Most consumers would choose to buy the small bag, due to their personal needs at that time.
Option C (decoy): $6.5 Medium bag of dog treats
Most consumers would choose to buy the large bag, because of the added decoy.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
A cognitive bias in which people who are ignorant in a given domain tend to believe they are more competent than they are.
In simple words, “people who are too stupid to know how stupid they are.”
“I believe my dog is the smartest dog in the world.” - says all dog owners.
Endowment Effect
The tendency for people to place a higher value on objects they are asked to give up than on a similar object they wish to acquire.
“I would sell my dog for $50 million dollars, but I would spend only $500 to get a new puppy.”
Framing Effect
The tendency for people to react differently to the same choice when it is presented as a loss or as a gain.
In the movie Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson, an outbreak of canine influenza spreads throughout the city of Megasaki. Scientists give the government two options:
Option 1: Lose 10 out of 100 dogs.
Option 2: Save 90 out of 100 dogs.
People tend to avoid risks when a positive frame is presented, but seek risks when a negative frame is presented.
Halo Effect
The tendency for positive impressions to influence one’s opinions on how we feel or think about a person, company, brand, or product.
“I saw this cute picture of a well groomed Bichon Frise. I think this is a very good and well behaved dog.”
Hindsight Bias
The “I-knew-it-all-along” effect, the tendency of people to overestimate their ability to see the outcome of something and believe that an event was more predictable than it actually was.
“My dog just ate from the peanut butter jar. I knew I shouldn’t have left the peanut butter on the table!”
Hot-Hand Fallacy
The tendency for a person to believe they will have a greater chance of further success in additional attempts after they have experienced success with a random event.
My pup will catch the next frisbee that I throw because she’s already caught 10 already.
IKEA Effect
The tendency for people to place a disproportionately high value on objects they that they partially created.
Owner: “The dog house I made this afternoon is worth $500,000 because it’s fit for a king.”
Dog: "What is this? You’ve made me a cardboard box with some leaves and sticks on the floor.”
Impact Bias
The tendency to overestimate the length or intensity of future feelings and mental states.
“I am SO mad at my dog for eating my slipper. I’m going to be pissed at him until the end of his life! Never mind, I love him again.”
Loss Aversion
The tendency to avoid losses to acquiring equivalent gains. It’s better not to lose $5 than to find $5. The pain of losing is psychologically twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining.
“I would rather not win $5 worth of dog treats than lose $5 worth of dog treats in this game.”
Negativity Bias
The tendency to have a greater recall of unpleasant memories compared with positive memories.
“Remember that time my dog got cancer and needed surgery?”
vs.
“Remember that nice day that we took my dog for a walk?”
Recency Effect
A memory phenomenon in which the most recent facts, impressions, or items are learned or remembered better than what’s presented before it.
“I remember giving my dog a slice of pear for a snack last time, but I don’t remember what treat I gave him 6 times ago.”
Representative Heuristic
The tendency for people to judge the probability of an object or event by finding a “comparable known” and assuming that the probabilities will be similar. We neglect information about the general probability of B occurring (its base rate).
“All dogs are fluffy.”
The Italian Greyhound cried “What about me?”
Self-Serving Bias
The tendency to claim responsibility over the successes rather than failures. Ambiguous information may also be interpreted in a way that is beneficial to their interests.
“My show dog won because she is very obedient and her looks are fabulous. My show dog lost because the judges were bad.”
Spotlight Effect
The tendency to overestimate the amount of attention that other people notices about your appearance or behaviour.
My dog is embarrassed about not catching the stick in front of the other dogs at the park. Turns out, the other dogs was more worried about playing with their owners to care.
Zero Price Effect
The tendency for items priced at exactly zero to be perceived to have a lower cost, but will also be attributed greater in perceived value. FREE is better than cheap.
There are two choices:
1. Low-value product (dog biscuit) for 1 cent
2. High-value product (beef bone) for 14 cents
Most people would pick the the high-value product because they care about their dogs.
If each product is lowered by 1 cent
1. Low-value product (dog biscuit) for FREE
2. High-value product (beef bone) for 13 cents
Most people would pick the FREE option because it’s free!
The results will show that when both products are not free, the majority preferred the higher value product. But, when the lower value product was offered free, the majority of people preferred it. Based off of the Hershey’s kiss experiment.
Please feel free to email any suggestion. Thanks fur reading!
Bonus: A parody of “Disgust” by Paul Rozin.
“Does a cat in a pile of dogs disgust you?”
“Yes.” Says the dog lover.