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Cognitive Biases In A Nutshell: How To Spot And Stop The Hiccups In Our Thinking Process

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Are you aware of how your internal biases may be affecting your outer reality?We’re all biased.

You may have read the above and already your mind is raising its defenses. No … not me. I haven’t got a biased bone in my body.

The fact you do. So does everyone around you.

Several scientific studies, in fact, suggest that certain forms of bias may be hardwired into the human psyche.

Professor Stephen Neuberg, head of Arizona State University’s Department of Psychology published research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2005 showing that, as a species, we evolved to quickly assess dangers posed by those outside our group to enhance our chances of survival.

Nobel prize winner, Daniel Kahneman, has addressed this phenomenon in numerous articles and in his widely reviewed book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.

The ability to process information rapidly was a life-or-death evolutionary advantage to our human ancestors in the hostile and unforgiving environment they inhabited.

As our environmental landscape changed, we still needed to process information with appropriate speed, but the decisions became increasingly complex and nuanced.

The swift system that evolved to identify and mitigate threats in hunter-gatherer societies became faulty, resulting in several cognitive biases that everyone harbors.

A cognitive bias is an error in thinking and judgment that happens when we selectively or improperly intake information.

Your cognitive biases can be sneaky, making you think you’re more open to the ideas, experiences, and contributions of others than you actually are.

Consequently, you may be tempted to rely more on your own knowledge and judgment, sometimes with disastrous results.

You may also spend hours after a decision, agonizing, particularly those that needed to be made in a short space of time.

Cognitive Biases In A Nutshell will help you to identify and correct the cognitive biases you fall prey to in your everyday life.

Identifying and correcting your biases is just one way you gain from reading Cognitive Biases In A Nutshell . The book will also show

The 5 ways your ego tricks you into thinking you know more than you do - Pg. 764 mental shortcuts we take that lead to bias and poor decision making, and the best ways to identify them - Pg. 20How bias exists along a scale and where yours fall on it - Pg. 14Why being more knowledgeable is a “curse” that may make you more prone to these 3 types of bias - Pg. 65The art of blending intuitive and logical thinking - Pg. 22Why you misremember facts, even though you’re “sure” about the details - Pg. 55What are the Halo and the Horn effects and how you can reduce their impact on your decisions - Pg. 121How wanting something to be true influences you to “find” evidence that it is and how to avoid this - Pg. 9;.... and much, much more.

Recognizing your tendencies toward certain cognitive biases makes you a better contributor to society. For example, you are less quick to judge or take things personally once you realize that everyone exhibits cognitive biases.

194 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 2, 2022

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Thinknetic

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Garth.
273 reviews1 follower
January 1, 2023
Not a bad read.

I was hoping for book on cognitive biases which has, in a roundabout way, been delivered. What I didn't particularly care for was the boring financial trading analogies, religious references and glib little tales which seemed to populate the text with increasing regularity. But I muscled through it although I was hoping to make this my last and 101st book of 2022.
338 reviews
February 25, 2023
This was very useful. Exactly what I needed to know and nothing more. Further research is needed on the biases mentioned in this book, but it provides an excellent overview on the different types of bias.
Profile Image for Joanne McKinnon.
Author 8 books3 followers
April 13, 2022
Good information on recognizing our own biases and what to do about them
Profile Image for Hafiz Hussain.
89 reviews10 followers
June 24, 2022
Enough material to adjust. They mentioned around 12 types of biases.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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