Article Contents

WHAT IS THE DECISION MAKING

We as a human and coordinating body on this planet do see ourselves being a part of the decision–making process, be it actively or passively and individually or collectively. We’re so revolved around decision that even deciding what to eat next is a minor decision–making process itself. From real major decisions to minor choices, we do the practice decision making. Decision making involves thinking out about the situation and other parameters and in the end, the decision is been executed.

A step in decision making called thinking involves thorough linking and connecting or settling the whole parts of a puzzle and process an output. even the thought which seems straight forward is manipulated at levels. Levels could be personal, social or environmental. Such manipulation of thoughts can also be termed as cognitive bias. It is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting inputs in their surrounding and it affects their decision making and judgement ability. A person percept ionises their own subjective reality out of the inputs.

TYPES OF COGNITIVE BIAS

Cognitive bias can also lead to poor judgements, illogical interpretations, and also can create irrationality in decision making process or it is often the brain’s attempt to simplify information processing. Everyone exhibits cognitive biases we can often notice it in others but not in ourselves. There are various types of cognitive biases which we practice knowing or unknowingly in our everyday life:

Confirmation bias– according to this bias, people are intended to give attention to the information of their interest or they already have. With this bias, people confirm their support towards their interest. For example, people may give attention only to the news which shows their favourable elective party in a good light.
Hindsight bias– it took place when people can generally predict the outcomes of upcoming situations. This could happen with the combination of misremembrance or the ability to a foreseen certain events. For example, people usually can predict which elective party will make it in elections under the ode of this bias.
Anchoring bias– people are intended to involve in cognitive negotiation with respect to the information they encounter, and consider desirable information and shapes their conclusion for any situation (anchoring point). For example, when people negotiate while shopping to reach up to their anchoring point.
Misinformation effect– under this effect, a person’s encounter with past situation impact present’s reaction over the situation and consider their recollection about the situation as valid one. For example, a person who’ve been through divorce would always recount his experience instead of accepting new facets about divorce.
Actor observer bias– it is all about how we perceive others and attribute their actions which is depend on if we are observer or an actor in the whole scenario. For example, when we notice a stranger being sad, we usually think that the stranger must be having a bad day or something, though in this situation the stranger is an actor and the other person is an observer.
False consensus effect– people having this tendency of overestimating how much other people agree with their own beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and values, and inclination is known as false consensus effect. For example, people with high self esteem may try to inspire others with their opinion about certain motion.
Halo effect– under this effect, people are intended to choose more attractive option among the others neglecting valid values other than attractiveness. For example, people following celebrities on social media because they’re good looking instead of accounting someone’s reliable values.
Self–serving bias– people are tended to give credits to oneself for success and blaming other factors for failures. For example, if a person turns out to qualify a competitive exam then one would credit himself for the qualification and in case if it turns out to be a failure then one would end up blaming luck.
Availability heuristic– the ability to estimate the probability of something happening based on how many examples readily comes to our mind or can say it is a mental shortcut to determine a situation efficiently. For example, smoking kills but haven’t seen anyone dying of smoking only irrespective of disease factor.
Optimism bias– people ignoring the chances of any negative happening and being too positive for one’s goodness. For example, people thinking that covid19 won’t infect them but will infect others only.

SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, AND IMPACT

There are certain symptoms that a person might be influenced by some cognitive biases. When we often end up paying attention to the news which only satisfies our opinion. Giving credit for others’ success to luck but in one’s case giving credit to own accomplishments. Keeping an assumption that everyone agrees or supports your opinion, beliefs and values. Overestimating about an issue through a very minor piece of information and thinking that you know everything. Blaming external factors if things doesn’t go as you expected. We often hope our opinion to be relevant, logical, reliable and valid in the eyes of society but ends up making poor judgments and decisions by following above signs. Though sometimes it is necessary to rely on biases and make decisions in order to respond to the situation. Factors such as emotions, social pressure, individual motivation and limits on the cognitive ability to process information can cause such biases. Such biases do also allow us too reach up to a decision quickly while facing dangerous situation such as fight and flight theory, which reflects that when a person is exposed to a danger, they might flight the situation by running away or would fight the situation by tackling so.

REMEDIAL FACTORS

Considering factors that might lead to cognitive biases and intervening efficiently.
Challenging the situation when we encounter any biases around ourselves. And identifying biases and their impact on oneself.

WHY IS OUR THINKING BIASED AND HOW IT AFFECTS OUR BEHAVIOR AND LEARNING PATTERNS?

We often got involved in cognitive bias thinking in the absence of mere triggers or hints. We unknowingly practice so and at the point of a conclusion can detect so. Our thinking is already so biased about our beliefs, values, opinions, and judgments. In a way, we register or accept what satisfies our filters about anything. It is all about preferences we opt to condition ourselves with certain changes. It impacts our learning pattern in two steps, one; we’re intended to learn or condition ourselves with information which doesn’t require any intervention as it suits our current preferences, and, two; we can unlearn certain information by accepting new facts about the situation.

CONCLUSION

We’re so surrounded by biases and are a crucial part of participation in it. Referring to the term, it is not that negative as it sounds. A literal quick judgment or decision making which can be helpful under the uncertain scenario. Types of cognitive biases are relevant to human nature but could also be detected and intervened at times. It all depends on the preferences and filters we accept. It can also be improved by the detection of biases and challenging so.