Cognitive Biases [Brain Food]

Here's the webpage I mentioned. Go there!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

Might as well post the marshmallow video whilst I'm at it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWW1vpz1ybo

Category:

Education

Tags:

• cognitive
• bias

[LordMantir]

Just watched this - that list is amazing! Brain food indeed.

[Steve2323ZX]

@ what if someone accused you of a Pessimism Bias How would you defend yourself? how can the person making the accusation define what is pessimism?

In regards to the marshmallow experiment, have you ever heard the expression, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush? The children were certain to get a reward for their patience because the environment is controlled but in life there are instances where taking what you can get now is better than waiting for a future reward which may never come

[SpeakMouthWords]

@Steve2323ZX Why don't you go on the Pessimism Bias page on wikipedia and look at the sources if you want to see how they determine these things?

[Steve2323ZX]

@SpeakMouthWords No, that is not my position at all. Most of these bias on the list seem arbitrary. Take Pessimism bias. It says it is; an effect in which people exaggerate the likelihood that negative things will happen to them. Who is the judge of if someone is having a Pessimism bias? How can you determine what are "negative things" and what are positive?

My other position is most of our drives are hidden from us but there is not enough room here to type. Look up freud and ego if you want.

[SpeakMouthWords]

@Steve2323ZX So you've raised a couple of interesting intrinsic points here. Firstly, you've assumed that all aspects of ourselves must be value neutral, whether rightly or wrongly, who knows. Secondly, it seems like you think some conscious entity is choosing these biases to exist in order to protect us from ourselves. If it's the subconscious, why does it care about our feelings? It certainly doesn't when it conjures nightmares. If its the wiring of the brain, how could that be conscious?

[Steve2323ZX]

@SpeakMouthWords the objection I have with the concept of cognitive bias is that they don't seem value neutral. a bias seems like something we ought to overcome. Most of our motives are hidden from us, to learn what our true drives are would hurt most peoples egos

[SpeakMouthWords]

@Steve2323ZX No, I'm saying that not all defects are sexual advantages.

[Steve2323ZX]

@SpeakMouthWords so when a guy sees a healthy woman at a coffee shop and starts talking to her, he just wants to get to know her and he doesn't have any underlying motives?

[SpeakMouthWords]

@Steve2323ZX I think your view on evolution is slightly incorrect. The reason our brains don't NOT work this way is because these biases weren't a life-threatening or sexual disadvantage when we were hunter-gatherers. Life-threatening disadvantages have since thrived due to the arrival of orderly society, just look at myopia. Life as a human now is vastly different to life as a human before most natural selection mechanisms were overcome.

[Steve2323ZX]

are you trying to make the argument that we should learn about cognitive bias in order to overcome them? Are brains work a certain way for a reason; in order to survive long enough to sexually reproduce. Is that something you want to overcome? You can become a eunuch and never have another cognitive bias ever again.