Cognitive Biases of Insufficient Meaning

Confabulation is a cognitive phenomenon in which people unknowingly fabricate or distort memories to fill gaps, believing them to be true.

The clustering illusion is the tendency to see patterns or clusters in random data.

Insensitivity to sample size is a bias in which people fail to account for how sample size affects reliability.

Neglect of probability is the tendency to ignore likelihood when evaluating outcomes.

The anecdotal fallacy occurs when personal stories are treated as evidence while statistical data is ignored.

The illusion of validity is a bias in which confidence in judgments remains high despite weak predictive accuracy.

The masked–man fallacy is a logical error where identity is misapplied due to differences in description.

The recency illusion is the belief that something is new simply because it has recently been noticed.

The gambler's fallacy is the belief that random events are influenced by previous outcomes.

The hot–hand fallacy is the belief that success increases the probability of further success in random processes.

Illusory correlation is the perception of a relationship between variables that are not actually related.

Pareidolia is the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns, such as faces or figures, in random or ambiguous stimuli.

Anthropomorphism is the tendency to attribute human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.

Group attribution error is a cognitive bias in which people assume that the characteristics or actions of individual group members reflect the group as a whole.

The ultimate attribution error is the tendency to explain in-group behavior favorably and out-group behavior unfavorably.

Stereotyping is the process of assigning generalized beliefs or traits to individuals based on group membership.

Essentialism is the belief that people or groups have inherent, unchangeable characteristics that define them.

Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits a person’s ability to use objects in novel ways.

The moral credential effect occurs when past moral behavior makes people feel licensed to act immorally later.

The just-world hypothesis is the belief that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

The argument from fallacy is the belief that a conclusion must be false because the argument supporting it is flawed.

Authority bias is the tendency to attribute greater accuracy or value to opinions of perceived authorities.

Automation bias is the tendency to over-rely on automated systems and ignore contradictory information.

The bandwagon effect is a bias where people adopt beliefs or behaviors because many others have done so.

The placebo effect occurs when belief in a treatment causes real improvement, despite the treatment having no active effect.

Out-group homogeneity bias is the tendency to perceive members of an out-group as more similar to each other than members of one’s in-group.

The cross-race effect is a memory bias in which people are generally better at recognizing faces of their own racial or ethnic group than faces of other groups.

In-group favoritism is the tendency to prefer, reward, or trust members of one’s own group over outsiders.

The halo effect is a bias where a positive impression in one area (e.g., attractiveness, confidence) influences overall judgment of a person or thing.

The cheerleader effect is a bias where people appear more attractive when seen in a group than when seen individually.

The positivity effect is a tendency (often stronger with age) to focus more on positive information and remember it better than negative information.

Not invented here is a bias in which people or organizations reject ideas, solutions, or products because they originate outside their group.

Reactive devaluation is a bias in which a proposal is undervalued simply because it comes from an opposing party or disliked source.

The well–traveled road effect is a bias where familiar or routine routes and methods are perceived as faster, easier, or more reliable than unfamiliar alternatives.

Mental accounting is a cognitive bias in which people categorize money into separate mental accounts instead of treating it as fully interchangeable.

The appeal to probability fallacy is the belief that because something is possible, it is therefore likely or inevitable.

Normalcy bias is the tendency to underestimate the likelihood and impact of disasters because they have not happened before.

Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Zero-sum bias is the tendency to assume that one person’s gain must come at another’s loss.

Survivorship bias occurs when conclusions are drawn from visible successes while ignoring failures that are not observed.

The subadditivity effect occurs when the perceived probability of multiple events is judged to be higher when they are described separately than when described together.

The denomination effect is the tendency to spend smaller denominations more easily than larger ones.

The magical number 7 ± 2 refers to the idea that the average person can hold about five to nine items in working memory at once.

The illusion of transparency is a cognitive bias in which people overestimate how clearly their internal states, emotions, or thoughts are apparent to others.

The curse of knowledge is a bias in which people find it difficult to imagine what it is like not to know something they already know.

The spotlight effect is the tendency to overestimate how much others notice and remember our appearance or behavior.

The extrinsic incentive error is the tendency to overestimate how much other people’s behavior is driven by external rewards rather than internal motivations.

The illusion of external agency is the tendency to attribute outcomes or events to external forces rather than one’s own actions.

The illusion of asymmetric insight is the belief that one understands others better than others understand oneself.

The telescoping effect is a memory bias where events are perceived as having occurred more recently (or more distantly) than they actually did.

Rosy retrospection is the tendency to remember past events as more positive than they were at the time.

Hindsight bias is the tendency to see events as predictable after they have already occurred.

Outcome bias is judging the quality of a decision based on its result rather than the information available at the time.

Moral luck occurs when people are judged morally based on outcomes influenced by chance rather than intent or control.

Declinism is the belief that things are getting worse over time, often contrary to long-term evidence.

Impact bias is the tendency to overestimate the intensity and duration of future emotional reactions.

Pessimism bias is the tendency to overestimate the likelihood of negative outcomes and underestimate positive ones.

The planning fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time, cost, and effort required to complete tasks.

Time–saving bias is the tendency to misjudge how much time is saved by increasing speed, especially at higher speeds.

Pro–innovation bias is the tendency to assume new technologies or ideas are inherently better than existing ones.

Projection bias is the tendency to assume future preferences will mirror current ones.

Restraint bias is the tendency to overestimate one’s ability to control impulses.

Self–consistency bias is the tendency to view oneself as more consistent over time than one actually is.