Types of Bias

Our 'Mind' works in an extraordinary way. Right? It's a mash-up of a multitude of things, such as an operating system/internet/electricity, all housed inside a powerhouse known as the Brain.

All the images used here in this blog - Source - Google

Since there are a lot of things to process and decisions to be made from our end, we rely on shortcuts. Shortcuts like our desktop/mobile icons that we click and it links us to the main program. These shortcuts are known as Heuristics. In layman's terms, a heuristic is a mental shortcut that assists people to solve problems and make quick decisions.

Heuristics are helpful in many situations, but they can also lead to cognitive biases. A bias can be explained as an inclination in favor or against an idea/thing. Most likely in a close-minded, prejudicial, or unfair way. Bias may be natural or learned from others. This can be against an individual, group, or belief and in reality, our biases do affect us and our decision making process in a multitude of ways - like our Perception, Behavior, Attitude, Attentions, etc.  Even if we are aware of it or not, each and every one of these things may affect the outcome.

Cognitive Bias
Now that we've understood Bias, Cognition in simple terms means the process of thinking. That is, understanding through thought, experience, and senses.

Now, most of our judgments can be linked to cognitive bias. People create their own subjective reality from their perception of the input. These have their own pros and cons. In fact, a cognitive bias is there in us for a reason. For the ultimate survival mode in us. But, it may create something called Irrational behavior as well. This means that cognitive bias at times may lead to perceptual distortion, illogical interpretation, inaccurate judgment, etc.  

Alright, so imagine you have gathered, pooled in all data from different sources to buy a brand new Mobile phone. You have checked on various aspects and features like storage, age, company's/brand's reputation, etc. All in check and ready to buy. You go to your mobile store and you see a person/customer coming out of the store so angry and he is yelling -

'What a bad phone this is...' Just brought this brand new one and the camera has issues already!

Dang! You were going to buy the same phone. Now, has this person's opinion affect your purchase? Have you become dual minded about buying the same mobile? 

Anyways, here are my top 6 picks on the biases that I see on social media platforms these days.

1. Confirmation bias - Most commonly engaged bias. Mother of all.

All of us love to favor things that confirm our existing beliefs and what we think we know. The Internet is probably the best example of this. While researching, we indirectly try to find sources that justify what we believe about the subject. By doing this, we ignore and dismiss the information that conflicts with them. It affects so much of our thinking through reasoning, blind belief comes into play.

As an example,  Tom purchased a new car. When he drove it around, he tends to notice that there's a lot of -  his same car (same model) on the roads. More than he ever realized. Those cars were there all along, but Tom never noticed them, because he had no reason to. But then, since he had brought that model to the forefront of his mind, suddenly those cars were there everywhere. This is how confirmation bias works.

For this to change, Our thinking needs a shift. We don't like changing our knowledge structures and we don't like thinking differently. We should try considering different sides of the story. Multiple sides if there are any. 

2. The Dunning-Kruger effect - The more you know, the less confident and vice versa

I'm sure, you got the point. It's not a question of ego blinding us to our weakness.

It's also easy to be overconfident when you only have a simple idea of how things are. This actually biases one to believe that the concept is easy to comprehend than how it may actually be. The experts, on the contrary, do not give out much because, well - they are cautious.

How do we understand this? Firstly try to educate oneself. Learn more. So that we have fewer holes in our competence. Secondly, probably ask feedback from people and consider it even if it's hard to hear. 

3. Belief Bias - If a conclusion supports one's existing belief, One may rationalize anything that supports it.

It's hard to change our existing beliefs, our ideas have been reinforced over the years making it not so easy for criticisms to pass through. This has the dangers of making valid conclusions seem invalid and the other way round too by distorting logical reasoning.

May be an exercise would be to ask oneself  'How and when did I get this belief?' 

We tend to automatically defend our ideas without actually questioning them. Leaving aside religion, A common example that I see on Facebook for the past few years is Anti Modi vs Modi Bhakth posts. Everyday people have to troll Modi. It's such a shame that this has turned out to become an addiction just like any other drug. And then there are Bhakths who defend Modi. Try to identify these people and their demographics. We can see a visible pattern in certain things. 

4. Optimism / Pessimism Bias - Overestimate outcomes of positive/negative outcomes

Our perception of life is a matter of perspective. Even though this example here is cliche on pessimists seeing the glass half empty, We have tendencies to overestimate the outcome of positiveness when we are in happiness and the same for negativity when we are feeling down or while having a pessimistic attitude towards life.

In either case of optimism or pessimism, we must be aware that emotions can make thinking irrational.

Try not to attach emotions with situations while thinking.

5. Framing Effect - Allowing oneself to be influenced by context and delivery

Which one would you choose? 

The frame of reference changes radically. Fat-free - a positive frame with respect to Contains fat - a negative frame. And of course, we end up choosing 80% fat-free. These concepts have been tested and have been used as a part of marketing for years.

Our brain makes decisions about information depending on how the information/situation is presented. The framing effect is highly used in marketing to influence decision-makers and purchasers.

By being mindful of how things are being put to us, is the only way to identify this sort of biasing. We should also have the intellectual humility to accept the fact that we can be manipulated in a number of ways.

6. Halo effect - Physical attractiveness stereotype

Our judgments are basically associative and automatic. Halo is when we see one great thing about a person and we let the Halo glow of that significant thing/person affect our opinions of everything else. We are in awe of them due to one thing. The most popular effect of this is to create product attractiveness. In business and as a persuasion strategy we commonly see this. eg. Celebrity endorsements, Ukrainian models for Indian sarees, and whatnot.

One such example of the Halo effect is an overall impression of celebrities. Since people perceive them as attractive, successful, and often likable, they(people, fans) also tend to see them as intelligent, kind, and funny. But, in reality... are they?

So, If we want to be objective, we need to consciously control ourselves for irrelevant influences. Probably that may be the way out.  

Phew, there are many more biases that need to be explained as well. Here are some more...

However, how do we get rid off or limit these Biases?

Most preconceived ideas and notions that we have are from collective intelligence which we automatically perceive to be right. By being aware of these biases, those which are unconscious should be made conscious, understand how things work, and moreover learn to question. 

References - yourbias.is, cxl.com, sciencenewsforstudence.org, social talent,mentalfloss.com