Tag Archives: Cognitive Bias

Bias 1 – Reward and Punishment Super-Response Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 1 Reward-Punishment Super-Response Tendency

The power that incentives and disincentives have on the actions of others cannot be overstated. Munger says this should be obvious but so many people don’t understand the how important incentives are for shaping people’s motivation to complete a task. Incentives and disincentives are extremely important in changing behavior. Just follow Benjamin Franklin’s Maxim: “If […]

Bias 2 – Liking/Loving Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 2 Liking-Loving Tendency

We ignore the faults of other people, products or companies that we admire. According to Charlie Munger, a newly arrived human is born to like and love, and the strongest inborn tendency to love is that of a mother for its child. Liking/Loving tendency makes the liker or lover tend to: To ignore the faults […]

Bias 3 – Disliking/Hating Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 3 Disliking-Hating Tendency

We also ignore the virtues of those things we dislike and distort the facts to facilitate that hatred while putting on blinders to other options and opinions. Disliking/Hating Tendency happens from the time the newly arrived human is also born to “dislike and hate” 1) Ignore the virtues in the object of dislike. 2) Dislike […]

Bias 4 – Doubt-Avoidance Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 4 Doubt-Avoidance Tendency

If we are unsure about a decision we try to quickly remove any doubt by making an ill-informed, quick decision, this is doubt-avoidance tendency Doubt-avoidance tendency is triggered by some combination of puzzlement and stress.

Bias 5 – Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 5 Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency

We have a reluctance to change. Eliminating bad habits is a rare trait. The brain of man conserves programming space by being reluctant to change, which is a form of inconsistency avoidance. Factors that create an anti-change and Inconsistency Avoidance Tendency mode in humans: It facilitated faster decisions when speed of decision was an important […]

Bias 6 – Curiosity Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 6 Curiosity Tendency

There is not enough curiosity to learn, even though you receive so many benefits from a continuous learning process. Munger says, “the curious are also provided with much fun and wisdom once formal education has ended.” Curiosity tendency has been one of the main drivers in human progress throughout history, the amount of curiosity in […]

Bias 7 – Kantian Fairness Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 7 Kantian Fairness Tendency

Life isn’t fair, but many can’t accept this. Tolerating a little unfairness should be okay if it means a greater fairness for all. The example Munger uses is letting in other drivers on the freeway knowing they will reciprocate in the future. Kantian Fairness Tendency Kant’s “Categorical imperative” or golden rules consists of humans require […]

Bias 8 – Envy/Jealousy Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 8 Envy-Jealousy Tendency

Self-explanatory, but Munger makes an interesting point that envy/jealously tendency is surprisingly absent from most Psychology textbooks. Envy/jealously tendency comes from the need to get often-scarce food, this occurs often when the food is seen in possesion of another member of the same species “it is not greed that drives the world, but envy” – […]

Bias 10 – Influence-From-Mere-Association Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias10 Influence-From-Mere-Association Tendency

We can be easily manipulated by mere association. It can be a group of people, the quality of a product, advertising, etc.

Bias 14 – Deprival-Superreaction Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 14 Deprival Super-Reaction Tendency

Deprival-Superreaction in a way is loss aversion. Loss aversion refers to people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Most studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains. A man ordinarily reacts with irrational intensity to even a small loss, or threatened loss, of property, love, friendship, dominated territory, opportunity, […]

Bias 16 – Contrast-Misreaction Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 16 Contrast-Misreaction Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases – Bias 16 Contrast-Misreaction Tendency Our problem here is a misunderstanding of comparisons and missing out on the magnitude of decisions, it is better to evaluate people and objects by themselves and not by their contrast. An example of Contrast Misreaction Tendency Contrast Misreaction Tendency is routinely used to cause disadvantge for […]

Bias 19 – Use-it-or-Lose-It Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 19 Use-it-or-Lose-it Tendency

Too many learn a skill to simply cram for a test or presentation instead of trying to actually understand it fluently Skills attenuate with disuse. Throughout his life, a wise man engages in practice for all his useful, rarely used skills, may of them outside his discipline, as a sort of duty to his better […]

Bias 22 – Authority-Misinfluence Tendency

25 Cognitive Biases - Bias 22 Authority-Misinfluence Tendency

Following orders just because someone says so. Living in dominance hierarchies as he does, man was born mostly to follow leaders, with only a few people doing the leading. And so, human society is formaly organized into dominance hierarchies.