Cognitive Errors and Biases

Explore the different types of cognitive errors and biases that affect human thinking and behavior. Understand the impact of self-fulfilling prophecy, memorable events error, misperception of random data, self-service bias, probability error, and more. Get access to solved assignments, essays, and dissertations on Desklib.

Cognitive Errors and
Biases

Introduction
Cognitive errors refer to how our minds
are convinced that something is right
even when it is not.
How human beings interpret their life
experiences solely depends on their
emotions. These emotions are influenced
by their feelings and interpretation of the
world around them (Ackerman, 2019).
However, in most cases, the
interpretations are based on cognitive
errors.

Self-fulfilling prophecy
This cognitive error occurs when an
individual believes that a future occurrence
manifests because the person holds it
(Curran, 2015).
For example, a student might not be active
in a mathematics class because she
believes that mathematics is a difficult
subject and she will fail even if she studies
hard. This would make her behave in ways
that are unlikely to contribute to her
success in mathematics and ends up
failing the subject.

Memorable Events Error
The memorable events error occurs
when an individual vividly remembers
incidences of a particular day basing on
other outstanding events that occurred
on that day (Cherry, 2014).
For instance, a lady would be able to
vividly recall the incidences that
occurred on the morning of her
wedding day but will not remember the
incidences that occur during the other
days.

Misperception of Random Data
Misperception of random data
occurs when our brains strive to
impose order on random data to
formulate meaningful patterns
where there are none (Howard &
Sutorius, 2019).
For instance, individuals might
tend to see a man on the moon
even these men do not exist
because their brains have been
structured to form random

Self-service Bias
Sometimes, individuals tend to believe that
they are in control of events even if the events
are out of their control, this is self-service
bias.
It occurs when an individual blames outside
factors for any negative outcome but takes
credit for a positive outcome (Saposnik, 2016).
For example, a student will tend to believe
that she got a good grade because she studied
hard and think that if she gets a bad grade,
either the test was unfair or the teacher does
not like her.

Probability error
Probability error occurs when an
individual believes that an event
is likely to occur depending on
the outcomes of a previous
similar event.
For instance, if a student gets a
higher grade in a certain subject
in a given exam, she/he will
expect a higher grade in the
subject in the subsequent
examinations.

“One of us/One of the” error
People learn to identify with an
individual or a group of individuals
depending on the similarity in their
characteristics because such people
have programmed their minds to
classify these individuals as “one of
us”.
As such, they tend to treat those they
refer to as “one of us” with love, care,
and respect than those who are
different (Cherry, 2014).

Mental filtering
This cognitive error occurs when individuals
filter things out of their conscious
awareness.
Mental filtering results in a person choosing
to concentrate more on the negative
outcomes rather than the positive
outcomes of the situation (Saposnik, 2016).
For example, a parent can reprimand a
child if he makes a mistake but cannot
award him or applaud him when he does
what is expected.

Emotional reasoning
Emotional reasoning shapes the
behavior, belief or idea based on how we
feel.
When an individual is excited, she is
likely to show a positive reaction towards
other people than when she is exhausted
or stressed (Howard & Sutorius, 2019).
For example, when a child makes an
inappropriate comment, her mother will
and up lashing her out because of her
negative emotions.

Magnification and minimizing
This cognitive bias occurs when
we minimize our positive
attributes and magnify those of
another person.
It happens when a person tries to
lower people’s expectations
towards her by talking down all
his positive attributes and
accomplishment while exalting
the accomplishment of other
people.

Catastrophizing error
This cognitive error occurs when a
person predicts a negative outcome and
immediately concludes that the negative
outcome would be a catastrophe if it did
happen (Saposnik, 2016).
For example, a student worries that he
would fail mathematics and jumps into
the conclusion that failing mathematics
would be a catastrophe and if he fails
mathematics, he would not become a
doctor as he has always desired.

Conclusion
The inaccurate thoughts that
originate from our cognitive
distortions have influenced how
and what we think about
ourselves thus reinforcing the
negative thinking and emotions
even on things that are not true.
Hence, cognitive errors only
serve to make individuals bad
about themselves and about the
situations that they are going

References
Ackerman, C. (2019). Cognitive Distortions:
When Your Brain Lies to You (+ PDF
Worksheets). Retrieved October 4, 2019, from
https://positivepsychology.com/cognitive-disto
rtions/
Cherry, K. (2014). How Cognitive Biases
Influence How You Think and Act.
Retrieved October 4, 2019, from
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cogni
tive-bias-2794963
Curran, E. T. (2015). Outbreak Column 16:
Cognitive errors in outbreak decision making.
Journal of infection prevention, 16(1), 32-38.

References cont.
Howard, J., & Sutorius. (2019).
Cognitive Errors and Diagnostic
Mistakes. Springer International
Publishing.
Saposnik, G., Redelmeier, D.,
Ruff, C. C., & Tobler, P. N. (2016).
Cognitive biases associated with
medical decisions: a systematic
review. BMC medical informatics
and decision making, 16(1), 138.