Cognitive Bias Identifier

Confirmation bias is the tendency to favor information that supports an existing belief and to ignore evidence that contradicts it.

Example: "I only follow the analysts who predicted this stock would rise, and they all agree it will keep going up."

Anchoring bias is the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making a judgment.

Example: "They originally listed it at $400, so $300 sounds like a great deal."

The availability heuristic estimates how likely something is by how easily examples come to mind, not by actual base rates.

Example: "I saw a plane crash on the news last week, so flying is way more dangerous than driving."

The sunk cost fallacy continues an effort because of the time, money, or energy already spent rather than its future value.

Example: "We have already spent two years on this project, so we have to keep going even if it is not working."

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the tendency for people with low ability in an area to overestimate their competence.

Example: "I read one article about economics, so I am pretty sure I understand monetary policy better than the central bank."

Hindsight bias is the tendency to believe, after an event has occurred, that it was predictable all along.

Example: "Of course the startup failed. The signs were obvious from day one."

Survivorship bias focuses on the people or things that made it past a selection process while overlooking those that did not.

Example: "Every successful founder dropped out of college, so dropping out is a smart career move."

The framing effect occurs when the same information leads to different conclusions depending on how it is worded.

Example: "Saying the surgery has a 90% survival rate sounds great, but a 10% mortality rate sounds scary."

Status quo bias is the tendency to prefer current conditions and treat any change as inherently risky.

Example: "We should keep the current system because we have always done it this way."

Recency bias gives extra weight to events that happened most recently while discounting older but equally relevant data.

Example: "The stock dropped this week, so it is clearly entering a long-term decline."

The halo effect is the tendency for a positive impression in one area to bleed into unrelated judgments about the same person, brand, or idea.

Example: "She is a great athlete, so her opinions on tax policy must be well-informed too."

In-group bias is the tendency to favor people seen as part of one's own group while judging outsiders more harshly.

Example: "When our side does it, it is strategy. When their side does it, it is corruption."

Negativity bias is the tendency to give more weight to negative information, events, or feedback than to positive ones of equal size.

Example: "One bad experience at that restaurant ruins it, no matter how many people had great meals."

Optimism bias is the tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive outcomes and underestimate the chance of negative ones.

Example: "Most startups fail, but we will be the exception because we believe in the idea."

The base rate fallacy ignores how common something is in the general population in favor of a specific, vivid case.

Example: "My uncle smoked every day and lived to 90, so smoking probably is not that risky."

The gambler's fallacy assumes that independent events become more or less likely based on what just happened, even when they are unrelated.

Example: "Heads has come up five times in a row, so tails is due."

The fundamental attribution error explains other people's behavior by their character while explaining one's own behavior by the situation.

Example: "He cut me off because he is rude. I cut someone off because I was running late."

The bandwagon effect is the tendency to adopt a belief or behavior because many other people already have, regardless of the evidence.

Example: "Everyone is buying this stock, so it must be a good investment."