You may know someone who has these biases or you may discover you are stuck in these ways of thinking yourself. Noticing these patterns can help stop damaging thinking in it’s tracks.
Projection Bias
The tendency to assume that most people think just like us, even though there may be no justification for it.
Self-Serving Bias
The tendency for people to think they’re better than average.
Confirmation Bias
The often unconscious act of referencing only those perspectives that fuel our pre-existing views, while at the same time ignoring or dismissing opinions — no matter how valid — that threaten our world view.
Ingroup Bias
The propensity to overestimate the abilities and value of our immediate group at the expense of people we don’t really know.
Hindsight Bias
The tendency, after we learn the outcome of something, to insist we “knew it all along.”
This article is from the February/March 2019 issue of Douglas.
Reference: “12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational,” George Dvorsky, gizmodo.com; “We struggle with Objectivity,” Nathan A. Heflick PhD, psychologytoday.com
