Cognitive biases and limitations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc J. Stern
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Human Thinking

This chapter summarizes some of the most common cognitive biases and limitations in human thinking and provides specific strategies for what we can do about them in various contexts. It serves as a baseline for understanding the flaws in some of our basic assumptions about human behavior and for approaching the rest of the theories discussed in the book with an appropriate dose of humility.

Economics and Epicycles

2020 ◽  
pp. 174569162095378
Author(s):  
Satoshi Kanazawa
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Behavioral Economic ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Economic Studies

I aver that standard economics as a model of human behavior is as incorrect in 2017 (after Thaler) as geocentrism was as a model of celestial behavior in 1617 (after Galileo). Behavioral economic studies that have exposed the paradoxes and anomalies in standard economics are akin to epicycles on geocentrism. Just as no amount of epicycles could salvage geocentrism as a model of celestial behavior because it was fundamentally incorrect, no amount of behavioral economic adjustments could salvage standard economics as a model of human behavior because it is fundamentally incorrect. Many of the cognitive biases exhibited by humans are shared by other species, so not only are human actors Humans (as opposed to Econs), but nonhuman animals as phylogenetically distant from humans as ants and locusts are also Humans. Evolutionary biology as a model of human behavior can explain many of the hitherto unexplained cognitive biases and provide a unifying model of human behavior currently lacking in behavioral economics.

Adaptive Biases

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-28
Author(s):  
Dominic D. P. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Relative Influence ◽  
Rational Actor ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Better Than

This chapter explores the notion of adaptive biases and strategic instincts in more detail and compares social science and life science approaches to understanding human behavior. It explains why cognitive biases evolved in the evolutionary past, whether they continue to be adaptive today, and why a bias can be better than accuracy. It also mentions that historians disagree on the relative influence of individual human actors in how history unfolds, while other historians dispute the fact that many or a majority of the most important figures across the ages do not fit the model of a perfectly rational actor. The chapter offers insights, predictions, and sources of variation that unifies a scientific theory to understand the origins, causes, and consequences of human cognitive and behavioral biases. It draws on evolutionary psychology to make two core arguments: cognitive biases are adaptations and cognitive biases are strategic.

Das Potenzial der Strategischen Vorausschau zur Reduktion kognitiver Verzerrungen

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-22
Author(s):  
Marion A. Weissenberger-Eibl ◽  
Tamara Huber
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Group Composition ◽  
Human Information Processing ◽  
Future Developments ◽  
Strategic Foresight ◽  
Human Thinking ◽  
World Information ◽  
The One

In order to secure a long-term competitive advantage in an increasingly complex world, information gathering, evaluation and exploitation is vital for uncovering future developments and dynamics in the corporate environment. The Strategic Foresight methods systematize the process of information processing, allowing a targeted look into the future. The benefits of such methods depend largely on the individuals who perform them. They may be subject to dysfunctional ways of thinking and behaving that evolves from mental models and the restricted ability of human information processing for coping with complexity and reflecting reality. On the one hand, the methods of Strategic Foresight contribute to the reduction of human dysfunctions, so called cognitive biases, by the approach design. On the other hand, the group composition of the employees involved and their degree of heterogeneity also have the potential to minimize biases. Applying approaches from cognitive science for human thinking in the field of Strategic Foresight outlines the contribution of foresight methods for reducing individual dysfunctions.

scholarly journals Large prospective losses lead to sub-optimal sensorimotor decisions in humans

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler J. Adkins ◽  
Richard L. Lewis ◽  
Taraz G. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Bounded Rationality ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Decision Problem ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Expected Gain ◽  
Potential Losses ◽  
Biases And Heuristics

AbstractThe rationality of human behavior has been a major problem in philosophy for centuries. The pioneering work of Kahneman and Tversky provides strong evidence that people are not rational. Recent work in psychophysics argues that incentivized sensorimotor decisions (such as deciding where to reach to get a reward) maximizes expected gain, suggesting that it may be impervious to cognitive biases and heuristics. We rigorously tested this hypothesis using multiple experiments and multiple computational models. We obtained strong evidence that people deviated from the objectively rational strategy when potential losses were large. They instead appeared to follow a strategy in which they simplify the decision problem and satisfice rather than optimize. This work is consistent with the framework known as bounded rationality, according to which people behave rationally given their computational limitations.

scholarly journals Inspiration and Insinuation Influences on Human Thinking and Behavior: A Psychoanalytical, Psychodynamic, and Cognitive Phenomenon

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (27) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Jamal Ahmad Badi ◽  
Lukman Ayinde Olorogun
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Continuous Development ◽  
Islamic Philosophy ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Human Thinking ◽  
And Behavior

<p>Is insinuation one of the most influential phenomena in the early and continuous development of human behavior? Yes. Does previous scientific study give ample of time to understand unconsciousness and its manifestation from this point of view? No. As we have demonstrated in the following pages, insinuation does hold a high view in the divine scriptures as an opposite to inspiration. The scientific views on unconsciousness theory further ascertained its influence on human activities. A number of scientists however, denounced this clear evidence due to lack of laboratory prove of inspiration-cum-insinuation effects rather termed unconsciousness. In this essay, through dedicated analysis using both induction and deduction methods we showed that their theories failed to study unconsciousness from a holistic perspective. It only focused on those that have psychological and psychopathological problems in exclusion of reasonable human beings, thus, contained numerous errors that even contradicted their scientific findings. Following in-depth and dedicated analysis, we showed the influences of unseen phenomena that are beyond human control from Islamic philosophy viewpoints affirming earlier biblical claims of insinuation influences. We concluded by mentioning some of the physical evidences justified by the Islamic scripture “Qur’an” and some of the implications of these findings for certain aspects of the contemporary “inspiration and insinuation debates”. </p>

Science, Knowledge, and Sport Psychology

1987 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Martens
Keyword(s):  
Sport Psychology ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Experiential Knowledge ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Idiographic Approach ◽  
Philosophy Of Knowledge

Two sport psychologies have emerged—academic sport psychology and practicing sport psychology—which presently are on diverging courses because of an unjustified belief in orthodox science as the primary source of knowledge. To support this contention, the basic assumptions of orthodox science are examined, with the doctrine of objectivity singled out as fallacious and especially harmful in that it attempts to remove the person from the process of knowing. Polanyi’s (1958) heuristic philosophy of knowledge, which places humans in the center of the process of knowing, is recommended as an alternative approach for the study of human behavior. This alternative approach reveals the inadequacy of the laboratory experiment which has been invented primarily to pursue the doctrine of objectivity. Next, the Degrees of Knowledge theory is proposed as an alternative way to view the reliability of knowledge. This view, within the heuristic paradigm, places great significance on experiential knowledge. Recommendations for an improved science of human behavior emphasizes the idiographic approach, introspective methods, and field studies. Also, recommendations are made for a more progressive approach to applied research, and the significance of knowledge synthesis from applied research. The two sport psychologies will converge when orthodox science and the doctrine of objectivity are replaced with the heuristic paradigm and its emphasis on experiential knowledge.

scholarly journals Selected Approaches of the Behavioral Economics in Post Pandemic Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 03017
Author(s):  
Norbert Súkeník ◽  
Nadežda Jankelová
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Human Thinking ◽  
Psychological Experiments

Changes in organizational behavior, decision-making processes, human thinking and action are the subject of an exploration of the increasingly popular behavioral economy. We assume that her knowledge gained from various economic or psychological experiments in recent decades can help managers understand the specifics of human behavior and action. The Covid crisis and the pitfalls it brings pose new challenges for managers. Knowledge of behavioral economics and descriptive approaches to decision making allows us to understand how people act in real conditions. This knowledge can help managers streamline management and become better leaders. The paper deals with the benefits of behavioral economics for managers in the process of “reopening” the economy and its main goal is to highlight the knowledge and solutions of behavioral economics, usable for postpandemic management. To meet the goal, it is necessary to describe the changes and new specifics of the environment affected by the pandemic crisis in the first, theoretical part of the work. After analyzing these changes and evaluating them, we look for the answers offered by behavioral economics in the final part of the paper. Based on the empirically obtained knowledge of mainly foreign authors, we present several examples of their practical application in the newly created management environment.

scholarly journals PROBLEM DALAM ASUMSI PSIKOLOGI BEHAVIORIS (SEBUAH TELAAH FILSAFAT ILMU)

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
Lailiy Muthmainnah
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Qualitative Difference ◽  
Effective Stimulus ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Inside Out

Behaviorism as a mainstream in psychology occupies a very significant position in decades. Behaviorism developed a method that is able to overcome the shortcomings of introspection in psychology studies. There are three basic assumptions in behaviorist psychology : (1) The method of behaviorist is out-inside (from outside to inside) so that the focus of the study on psychology is behavior and not on the internal mental state. The method of behaviorist psychology is the opposition of the Cartesian model of thinking that is inside-out. (2) The purpose of psychology was the prediction of behavior. (3) The human body is mechanically qualitatively not much different with animals, just to be more complex, so that there is no qualitative difference between the behavior of humans and non-humans. Based on the above assumptions, the fundamental problem that then arises are follows: (1) Ignored or even rejection of consciousness as a part that should be considered in human behavior. (2) Explanation of a very mechanical style behaviorist only able to explain human behavior in terms of a materialist causa, formalist, and efficient, regardless of cause of finalists who put more emphasis on the intentions of the action. (3) Behaviorism too dogmatic in its aim to predict behavior. Regardless of the problems that exist in the assumptions behaviorist psychology, the flow is still able to contribute in explaining people's behavior, given the influence of the environment (both physical and social environment, cultural and economic) as a source of effective stimulus for the behavior of individuals.

Multidimensional Anxiety and Content-specificity Effects in Preferential Processing of Threat

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 252-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel G. Calvo ◽  
P. Avero ◽  
M. Dolores Castillo ◽  
Juan J. Miguel-Tobal
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Color Naming ◽  
Memory Bias ◽  
Ego Threat ◽  
Phobic Anxiety ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Content Specificity ◽  
Specificity Effects

We examined the relative contribution of specific components of multidimensional anxiety to cognitive biases in the processing of threat-related information in three experiments. Attentional bias was assessed by the emotional Stroop word color-naming task, interpretative bias by an on-line inference processing task, and explicit memory bias by sensitivity (d') and response criterion (β) from word-recognition scores. Multiple regression analyses revealed, first, that phobic anxiety and evaluative anxiety predicted selective attention to physical- and ego-threat information, respectively; cognitive anxiety predicted selective attention to both types of threat. Second, phobic anxiety predicted inhibition of inferences related to physically threatening outcomes of ambiguous situations. And, third, evaluative anxiety predicted a response bias, rather than a genuine memory bias, in the reporting of presented and nonpresented ego-threat information. Other anxiety components, such as motor and physiological anxiety, or interpersonal and daily-routines anxiety made no specific contribution to any cognitive bias. Multidimensional anxiety measures are useful for detecting content-specificity effects in cognitive biases.

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