188 Cognitive Biases and counting

As much as humans think of themselves as rational beings, truth be told, we make a lot of bizarre, illogical, and irrational choices.

Because our brains are wired to rely on shortcuts and patterns to solve problems and make judgment calls quickly.

A month back, I started reading up on these irrational errors of human decision-making called cognitive biases. And the way they affect our lives – from the way we shop, invest, behave to communicate. Charted a 30-day plan- thought I’d be ready.

Recently learned- there are 188 cognitive biases! (The Dunning–Kruger effect: you don’t know what you don’t know)

The brilliant graphic from DesignHacks illustrates these 188 cognitive biases. Contextualized under four themes and a total of twenty sub-themes are our most common failures of rational and critical thinking.

Does knowing their names help?

Here’s what I think. As the field of behavioral economics rapidly grows, perhaps more biases will be labeled in the future. But those that are commonly known are given names today because once named, they’re easier to identify, emphasize, analyze, and ultimately avoid in pursuit of socio-cultural progress.

One way I use the visual is to look at areas that are of interest to me, based on introspection and feedback.

E.g. If you Act Fast, you may want to check out the bottom left quadrant.

Link: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/every-single-cognitive-bias/