What are examples of Availability Bias subtypes?
Retrievability bias: judging frequency by how easy examples come to mind (e.g., overestimating “-ing” words).
Anchoring & adjustment bias: sticking too closely to an initial number (e.g., auditors estimating fraud cases).
Analogy: It’s like guessing someone’s age — once they say “I’m older than 20,” your brain keeps circling around that number instead of thinking freely.
What is Self-enhancement bias?
Definition: Inflating your self-image, thinking you’re better than you are.
Includes: self-serving attributions, confirmation bias, better-than-average effect, escalation of commitment, egocentric accounting.
Analogy: Like a cat looking in the mirror and seeing a lion. 🦁
What is the “Better-than-average effect”?
Definition: People rate themselves above average in skills or traits.
Example: Most students think they’re better leaders than their peers.
Analogy: It’s like a class where everyone thinks they’re “above average,” which is mathematically impossible.
What is the Escalation of Commitment (Sunk Cost Fallacy)?
Definition: When a decision turns bad, people stick to it (or commit even more).
Example: Continuing to invest money in a failing project.
Analogy: Like continuing to eat burnt pizza because “I paid for it.”
hat is Egocentric Accounting?
Definition: Claiming more responsibility for joint outcomes than is fair.
Example: In group projects, everyone thinks they did the most work.
Analogy: Like two kids both saying they carried the groceries inside when in reality, mom did most of it.
What is overconfidence bias?
The tendency to be more certain about the truth of our assumptions or the precision of our knowledge than we should be.
🔑 Analogy: It’s like confidently saying you know how tall a building is without measuring it — and being way off. Your brain acts like a GPS that says “100% accurate,” but it hasn’t been updated in years.
What is the illusion of control?
The belief that we can understand, predict, and control the world more than we really can.
🔑 Analogy: It’s like thinking you can control the outcome of rolling dice just by blowing on them for luck.
What is illusory correlation?
Seeing a relationship between two things even when no relationship exists.
🔑 Analogy: Believing black cats bring bad luck just because you once saw one before something bad happened.
What is hindsight bias?
The tendency to falsely believe, after an outcome is known, that we “knew it all along.”
🔑 Analogy: After your team loses a match, saying, “I knew they were going to lose,” even though you didn’t say that before the game.
What are the three ethical criteria in decision-making?
Utilitarianism: Seek the best outcome for all.
Rights: Protect the basic rights of individuals.
Justice: Ensure fair distribution of benefits and costs.
🔑 Analogy: It’s like splitting a pizza: utilitarianism = cut so everyone gets fed; rights = make sure nobody is forced to go hungry; justice = make sure slices are fair.
