Cognitive Biases to Avoid in Decision Making

Affect Heuristic
Letting current positive and negative emotions (e.g., fear, pleasure, surprise) influence decisions.

Ambiguity Aversion
Tendency to prefer known/certain probabilities over uncertain probabilities.

Anchoring Bias
Letting an initial piece of information influence decisions.

Availability Bias
Letting instances that came to mind at ease influence decisions.

Bandwagon Effect
Doing what others do.

Confirmation Bias
Tendency to filter information that confirms one’s prior beliefs.

Decoy Effect
Letting asymmetrically dominated alternatives influence choice.

Default Bias
The psychological inertia to remain at the status quo.

Framing Effect
Letting the way the options are framed influence decisions.

Impact Bias
Overestimate the long-term impact of an event.

Loss Aversion
Letting losses loom larger than corresponding gains.

Overconfidence
Overvalue the benefit and underestimate the risk.

Outcome Bias
Letting a prior decision outcome influence subsequent independent decisions.

Representativeness Bias
Tendency to compare a new event with a prototype in mind.

Selective Perception
Tndency to ignore information to avoid emotional discomfort and contradictpry beliefs.

Sunk-cost Bias
Tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment (money, effort, or time) has been made.