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What are heuristics? - Heuristics are essentially mental shortcuts that humans take in order to make decisions quickly. There is a lot of information in the world, and limited time to make decisions, so these mental processes help us be efficient.

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What are biases? -

Some of these heuristics can lead to cognitive biases. These are systematic errors in our thinking that sometimes happen when we make a decision.

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Origins - The psychology behind heuristics and biases owes its origins to Herbert Simon (1916-2001). Later on, Amos Tversky (1937-1996) and Daniel Kahneman carried out groundbreaking research into the kinds of biases that influence the human brain.

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Origins - After Amos Tversky (1937-1996) passed away, Daniel Kahneman (pictured) wrote a book about their research findings called ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ (2011). He won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work.

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Why? - There are several reasons why we might need to streamline our thinking. The first theory is that it reduces mental effort. By using heuristics, problem solving and decision making becomes easier, even if it can be less accurate.

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Speed - Back in the day when human beings were hunter-gatherers, it was important to find solutions quickly in order to survive. Heuristics allow us to make decisions faster because they transform the complex information around us into more simple forms.

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Types of heuristics - There are several different kinds of heuristics that are at play at the same time. When you are reading about them, try and think of times when they might have influenced you. It is surprising how much they truly influence the way we think.

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Availability - The available heuristic is when we make decisions based on how easily something comes to our minds. The more readily available the information is, the more likely it will affect your thoughts, no matter if it is actually relevant or not.

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Availability - For example, if you read a few articles about plane crashes, and then have to decide whether to buy a plane or a train ticket, you will probably buy a train ticket because you think plane travel is too dangerous.

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Representativeness -

This heuristic is when you use a situation you have in your brain to help make a decision in the present. For example, an old man may remind you of your grandfather, and so you instantly believe he is a lovely, caring person.

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Affect - We are all familiar with this one. The affect heuristic is when your emotional state influences the choices you make. For example, you might be more likely to buy somebody a nice birthday present if you are in a good mood. By the same token, if you are in a bad mood, you may not put so much consideration into the gift.

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Anchoring - Anchoring happens when we are too influenced by the first piece of information we hear on a subject. By not considering the other information with the same amount of consideration, we often make bad choices.

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Anchoring - For example, imagine you are at a market. A stall owner says an item is US$15. You try to bargain to $10 and they accept. You think you have gotten a pretty good deal. This is only because you were anchored by the first piece of information. If you looked at the item a bit closer, you might have seen that it’s probably actually worth $5.

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Error - It is possible that in an effort to process the information around you, your brain has started to make an error. Once an error occurs in our way of thinking, it is quite hard to remove it, because a neural connection has been created.

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Actor-observer bias - Actor-observer bias happens when you believe that your own issues are due to external sources, but other people’s are due to internal issues. For example, you may attribute your own weight gain to genetics, but consider other people’s weight gain as a result of laziness and poor diet.

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Attentional bias - This happens when we give attention to certain aspects of something while also ignoring others, even if they are important. For instance, when you buy a bike you may pay attention to the aesthetics, but ignore the quality of the wheels and breaks.

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Confirmation bias - Confirmation bias is especially prevalent in politics. It happens when you favor information that confirms what you already think, rather than considering the evidence against your views.

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False consensus effect - Simply put, humans are likely to believe that more people agree with them than actually is the case. We make a “false consensus.”

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Functional fixedness - This happens when we fail to see other uses for things because we are blinded by their functional role. For example, you may not buy pins because you do not put things up on your wall. However, they can have many different uses. The same goes for people. You may never think of janitors as having leadership qualities, even though it is entirely possible that they do.

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Halo effect - Humans tend to do this a lot. It happens when your overall impression of a person determines how you judge their character. Usually, we might think of this as a gut feeling. However, there is evidence to suggest that physical attractiveness has a lot to do with our impressions of people.

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Misinformation effect - The effect occurs when information about things that happened after an event affects the memory of the event. For example, an eye witness may misremember a crime because of new information, leading to unreliable evidence in court.

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Optimism bias - We experience optimism bias when we believe that we are less likely to experience misfortune than others. It also leads us to believe that we are more likely to attain success.

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Self-serving bias - We are all guilty of doing this. It's when we blame others when bad things happen, but take the credit when good things happen. For example, you might blame others for losing your job, but give yourself credit when you land a new one.

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The Dunning-Kruger effect - People who experience this often think that they are much smarter and more capable than they actually are. It's named after social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger.

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Cognitive flexibility - There is no sure way of finding the causes for these heuristics and biases. We become more cognitively biased as we get older because of a decrease in cognitive flexibility.

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Distorted thinking - If someone suffers from a lot of cognitive biases, they are likely to engage in distorted thinking. For example, conspiracy theories have often been linked to several cognitive biases.

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Learn awareness -

It is possible to overcome biases with a bit of hard work. Firstly, you should become aware of the biases that exist. This may allow you to bypass the shortcuts that the brain had made for you. As a consequence, you will probably make better decisions.

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Consider decision factors - When making decisions, try and think of the biases and consider if they are influencing your thinking in any way. This will help you be more neutral when considering different options.

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Challenge your own thinking -

One of the biggest things you can do is to challenge your own way of thinking. You will never overcome cognitive biases if you do not accept that you have them in the first place. When you do, you will enhance your critical thinking skills and become a better human being for it.

Sources: (Verywell Mind) (MasterClass)

See also: Individual psychology: How you can be happy today

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