Critical thinking

Cheerleader effect
(reading time – 20 sec.)

The cheerleader effect is the cognitive bias which causes people to think individuals are more attractive when they are in a group.

The effect is the result of the way we look at groups and what people, on average, deem an attractive face.

When we look at a group of people, we see them as a group, and our brains average out their facial features.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

The Ben Franklin effect
(reading time – 50 sec.)

The Ben Franklin effect is a proposed psychological phenomenon: a person who has performed a favor for another is more likely to do another favor for the other than he or she would be if he or she had received a favor from that person.

People reason that they help others because they like them, even if they do not, because their minds struggle to maintain logical consistency between their actions and perceptions.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

Post Hoc Fallacy
(reading time – 30 sec.)

It is a logical fallacy that states "Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X."

The Brazilian footballer Pelé is said to have blamed a dip in his playing performance on having given a fan a specific playing shirt; after getting the shirt back his performance recovered. The loss of the shirt was given as the reason for his dip, and its return the cause of his recovery. In reality, it was later discovered the shirt returned was not the original shirt.


Topic: #LogicalFallacy
Source: Wikipedia

Frequency Illusion
(reading time – 30 sec.)

The illusion in which a word, a name, or other thing that has recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards. This illusion may explain some examples of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, when someone repeatedly notices a newly learned word or phrase shortly after learning it.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

Availability Cascade
(reading time – 10 sec.)

A self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse (or "repeat something long enough and it will become true").


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

The Best Posts of 2017

Expert Intuition
https://t.me/feedbrain/23

Harry Potter and Methods of Rationality
https://t.me/feedbrain/31

The False-Consensus Effect
https://t.me/feedbrain/68

The Self-Serving Bias
https://t.me/feedbrain/71

The Availability Heuristic
https://t.me/feedbrain/78

Confirmation Bias
https://t.me/feedbrain/79

Reciprocation
https://t.me/feedbrain/84


Happy New Year😉

Information Bias
(reading time – 20 sec.)

Information bias is a type of cognitive bias that describes the tendency to seek information when it does not affect action. People can often make better predictions or choices with less information: more information is not always better. An example of information bias is believing that the more information that can be acquired to make a decision, the better, even if that extra information is irrelevant for the decision


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

Bandwagon Effect
(reading time – 30 sec.)

The bandwagon effect is a phenomenon whereby the rate of uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends increases the more that they have already been adopted by others. In other words, the bandwagon effect is characterized by the probability of individual adoption increasing with respect to the proportion who have already done so. As more people come to believe in something, others also "hop on the bandwagon" regardless of the underlying evidence.

The bandwagon effect explains why there are fashion trends.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

Distinction Bias
(reading time – 50 sec.)

Distinction bias is the tendency to view two options as more distinctive when evaluating them simultaneously than when evaluating them separately.

For example, when televisions are displayed next to each other on the sales floor, the difference in quality between two very similar, high-quality televisions may appear great. A consumer may pay a much higher price for the higher-quality television, even though the difference in quality is imperceptible when the televisions are viewed in isolation. Because the consumer will likely be watching only one television at a time, the lower-cost television would have provided a similar experience at a lower cost.

Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

The texas sharpshooter
(reading time – 30 sec.)

You cherry-picked a data cluster to suit your argument, or found a pattern to fit a presumption.

This 'false cause' fallacy is coined after a marksman shooting randomly at barns and then painting bullseye targets around the spot where the most bullet holes appear, making it appear as if he's a really good shot. Clusters naturally appear by chance, but don't necessarily indicate that there is a causal relationship.

Example: The makers of Sugarette Candy Drinks point to research showing that of the five countries where Sugarette drinks sell the most units, three of them are in the top ten healthiest countries on Earth, therefore Sugarette drinks are healthy.


Topic: #LogicalFallacy
Source: yourlogicalfallacyis.com

Subjective Validation
(reading time – 30 sec.)

Subjective validation is a cognitive bias by which a person will consider a statement or another piece of information to be correct if it has any personal meaning or significance to them.

In other words, a person whose opinion is affected by subjective validation will perceive two unrelated events to be related because their personal belief demands that they be related. Subjective validation is an important element in cold reading. It is considered to be the main reason behind most reports of paranormal phenomena.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

Strawman
(reading time – 30 sec.)

You misrepresented someone's argument to make it easier to attack.

By exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone's argument, it's much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine honest rational debate.

Example: After Will said that we should put more money into health and education, Warren responded by saying that he was surprised that Will hates our country so much that he wants to leave it defenceless by cutting military spending.


Topic: #LogicalFallacy
Source: yourlogicalfallacyis.com

Framing Effect
(reading time – 30 sec.)

The framing effect in psychology is a cognitive bias that humans suffer from. We react unknowingly to things the way they're conveyed to us.

Consider the simple example of a pessimist and an optimist. A glass of water which is either half-full or half-empty: both are equivalent truths. However, when portrayed in a negative frame, you think that the glass is half-empty. If portrayed in a positive frame, you see the glass as half-full.

Such 'frames' can be used to create marketing gimmicks by advertisers to trick consumers into buying their products.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: psychologenie.com

Embodied Cognition
(reading time – 20 sec.)

Embodied cognition is the idea that the mind is not only connected to the body but that the body influences the mind.

In other words it reflects the argument that the motor system influences our cognition, just as the mind influences bodily actions.

For example, when somebody holds a pencil in their teeth engaging the muscles of a smile, they comprehend pleasant sentences faster than unpleasant ones, while holding a pencil between their nose and upper lip to engage the muscles of a frown has the reverse effect.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

Reciprocation
(reading time – 1 min.)

In social psychology, reciprocity is a social rule that says people should repay, in kind, what another person has provided for them; that is, people give back (reciprocate) the kind of treatment they have received from another. By virtue of the rule of reciprocity, people are obligated to repay favors, gifts, invitations, etc. in the future. If someone receives a gift for their birthday, a reciprocal expectation may influence them to do the same on the gift-giver's birthday. This sense of future obligation associated with reciprocity makes it possible to build continuing relationships and exchanges. Reciprocal actions of this nature are important to social psychology as they can help explain the maintenance of social norms.

A person who violates the reciprocity norm by accepting without attempting to return the good acts of others is disliked by the social group. Individuals who benefit from the group's resources without contributing any skills, helping, or resources of their own are called free riders. Both individuals and social groups often punish free riders, even when this punishment results in considerable costs to the group. Therefore, it is unsurprising that individuals will go to great lengths to avoid being seen as a moocher, freeloader, or ingrate.

The rule enforces uninvited debts and can trigger unfair exchanges.


Topic: #Psychology
Source: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

Appeal to Authority
(reading time – 40 sec.)

You said that because an authority thinks something, it must therefore be true.

It's important to note that this fallacy should not be used to dismiss the claims of experts, or scientific consensus. Appeals to authority are not valid arguments, but nor is it reasonable to disregard the claims of experts who have a demonstrated depth of knowledge unless one has a similar level of understanding and/or access to empirical evidence. However it is, entirely possible that the opinion of a person or institution of authority is wrong; therefore the authority that such a person or institution holds does not have any intrinsic bearing upon whether their claims are true or not.

Example: Not able to defend his position that evolution 'isn't true' Bob says that he knows a scientist who also questions evolution (and presumably isn't a primate).


Topic: #LogicalFallacy
Source: yourlogicalfallacyis.com

Burden of Proof
(reading time – 45 sec.)

You said that the burden of proof lies not with the person making the claim, but with someone else to disprove.

The burden of proof lies with someone who is making a claim, and is not upon anyone else to disprove. The inability, or disinclination, to disprove a claim does not render that claim valid, nor give it any credence whatsoever. However it is important to note that we can never be certain of anything, and so we must assign value to any claim based on the available evidence, and to dismiss something on the basis that it hasn't been proven beyond all doubt is also fallacious reasoning.

Example: Bertrand declares that a teapot is, at this very moment, in orbit around the Sun between the Earth and Mars, and that because no one can prove him wrong, his claim is therefore a valid one.


Topic: #LogicalFallacy
Source: yourlogicalfallacyis.com

Confirmation Bias
(reading time – 40 sec.)

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way(if two individuals have the same information, the way they interpret it can be biased).

Confirmation bias can lead investors to be overconfident, ignoring evidence that their strategies will lose money. In studies of political stock markets, investors made more profit when they resisted bias. For example, participants who interpreted a candidate's debate performance in a neutral rather than partisan way were more likely to profit. To combat the effect of confirmation bias, investors can try to adopt a contrary viewpoint "for the sake of argument". In one technique, they imagine that their investments have collapsed and ask themselves why this might happen.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia

The Availability Heuristic
(reading time – 40 sec.)

After seeing several news reports of car thefts in your neighborhood, you might start to believe that such crimes are more common than they are. This tendency to estimate the probability of something happening based on how many examples readily come to mind is known as the availability heuristic. It is essentially a mental shortcut designed to save us time when we are trying to determine risk.

The problem with relying on this way of thinking is that it often leads to poor estimates and bad decisions. Smokers who have never known someone to die of a smoking-related illness, for example, might underestimate the health risks of smoking.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: verywell.com

The Hindsight Bias
(reading time – 40 sec.)

One common cognitive bias involves the tendency to see events, even random ones, as more predictable than they are. In one classic psychology experiment, college students were asked to predict whether they thought then-nominee Clarence Thomas would be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to the Senate vote, 58% of the students thought Thomas would be confirmed. The students were polled again following Thomas's confirmation, and a whopping 78% of students said they had believed Thomas would be confirmed.
This tendency to look back on events and believe that we “knew it all along” is surprisingly prevalent. Following exams, students often look back on questions and think “Of course! I knew that!” even though they missed it the first time around. Investors look back and believe that they could have predicted which tech companies would become dominant forces.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: verywell.com