Cognitive Biases

Today's Learning Target:

​I can analyze my classmates' posters to gain an understanding of each of the 8 cognitive biases.

Open Ended

Marcus and his family are waiting in line for a table at the Olive Garden. The
hostess just came out and told him that they are packed tonight, and it’ll still be
another hour until they can get a table. Marcus tells his family that they’ve
already been waiting for 20 minutes, so they might as well stay and keep on
waiting. This is an example of:

Sunk Cost Fallacy

❏

The natural tendency of a person to be reluctant to abandon a strategy or
course of action because they have invested

Open Ended

John just got a promotion at work this morning, but he tells his wife he had a bad day because he wasn’t able to order the lunch he wanted. This is an example of:

Loss Aversion

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“Losing feels worse than winning feels good” - Vin Scully

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Loss feels twice as bad as gain

Open Ended

Trish decides that traffic is too slow, so she starts speeding on her way to yoga
class. She then gets pulled over and given a ticket. Her ticket was so bad that
she ended up having to go to court. Her court case resulted with her getting her
license suspended. Because she could no longer drive, she ended up losing her
job. This is an example of:

Domino Effect

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The domino effect suggests that a single event or action can have
far-reaching and often unforeseen consequences

Open Ended

Lisa just found out that she just won $1,000 off of her $2 scratch off card, and
that she received an A on her college physics midterm. While she is initially
excited about both, by the time she goes to bed she just feels fine. This is an
example of:

Hedonic Adaptation

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Refers to the concept that after positive or negative events, or situations that
cause strong positive or negative feelings, people return to a relatively stable
baseline state

Open Ended

Javier doesn’t know anything about stocks, but he decides to invest half of his
life savings in bitcoin just because his brothers did the same. This is an example of:

Herd Mentality

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The tendency of the people in a group to think and behave in a ways that
conform with others in the group, rather than individuals

Open Ended

Gia as a big algebra test coming up on Friday. Although she has all week to
study, and she has missed quite a few days of class, she decides not to study or worry about her test because she thinks she knows all she needs to. This is an example of:

Overconfidence

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The tendency to overestimate our knowledge and abilities in a certain area

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“Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer”

Open Ended

Pamela hangs out with her friends every Friday night, but all they want to do is
stay in and watch movies without much to discuss, and she is growing sick of it.
Even though she feels this way, she still makes sure she’ll be there this week, just
in case something interesting happens this time. This is an example of:

Fear Of Missing Out (F.O.M.O.)

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The feeling of apprehension that one is either not in the know about or
missing out on information, events, experiences, or life decisions that could
make one’s life better

Open Ended

Lucas is a huge fan of Elon Musk, and thinks everything he does is brilliant. Even with all the recent controversy surrounding what he’s been doing (Twitter → X, Tesla cars in space, etc.), he still thinks Mr Musk never makes mistakes, and always invests in his companies, no matter what the haters say. This is an example of:

Confirmation Bias

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The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way
that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values