Critical thinking – Telegram
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
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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
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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
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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
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
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Post Hoc Fallacy
(reading time – 35 sec.)

The Latin phrase “post hoc ergo propter hoc” means, literally, “after this therefore because of this.” The post hoc fallacy is committed when it is assumed that because one thing occurred after another, it must have occurred as a result of it. Mere temporal succession, however, does not entail causal succession. Just because one thing follows another does not mean that it was caused by it.

One example of the post hoc flaw is the evidence often given for the efficacy of prayer. When someone reasons that as they prayed for something and it then happened, it therefore must have happened because they prayed for it, they commit the post hoc fallacy. The correlation between the prayer and the event could result from coincidence, rather than cause, so does not prove that prayer works.


Topic: #LogicalFallacy
Source: logicalfallacies.info
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Fear Of Missing Out
(reading time – 40 sec.)

In psychological terms, FOMO is a cognitive bias defined as the fear experienced by individuals when faced with the thought that they might miss out on a social occasion, a new experience, a profitable investment or a satisfying event.

Social media sites have become a large contributing factor to the FOMO sensation. People develop negative feelings and emotions from social media sites because of envy towards others’ posts and lives. Social media has created an easy-to-access, centrally located spot for people to constantly refresh their feeds and find out what others are doing in that exact moment.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Omission Bias
(reading time – 20 sec.)

The omission bias is the tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral than equally harmful omissions (inactions) because actions are more obvious than inactions.

A real-world example is when parents decide not to vaccinate their children because of the potential chance of death—even when the probability the vaccination will cause death is much less likely than death from the disease prevented


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Ambiguity effect
(reading time – 30 sec.)

The ambiguity effect is a cognitive bias where decision making is affected by a lack of information, or "ambiguity". The effect implies that people tend to select options for which the probability of a favorable outcome is known, over an option for which the probability of a favorable outcome is unknown.

When buying a house, many people choose a fixed rate mortgage, where the interest rate is set in stone, over a variable rate mortgage, where the interest rate fluctuates with the market. This is the case even though a variable rate mortgage has statistically been shown to save money.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Empathy Gap
(reading time – 30 sec.)

An empathy gap is a cognitive bias in which people underestimate the influences of visceral drives on their own attitudes, preferences, and behaviors.

The most important aspect of this idea is that human understanding is "state-dependent". For example, when one is angry, it is difficult to understand what it is like for one to be calm, and vice versa; when one is blindly in love with someone, it is difficult to understand what it is like for one not to be.


Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Illusion Of Truth Effect
(reading time – 40 sec.)

People are more likely to identify as true statements those they have previously heard (even if they cannot consciously remember having heard them), regardless of the actual validity of the statement. In other words, a person is more likely to believe a familiar statement than an unfamiliar one.

The truth effect plays a significant role in various fields of activity. During election campaigns, false information about a candidate, if repeated in TV commercials, can cause the public to believe it. Similarly, advertising that repeats unfounded claims about a product may boost sales because some viewers may come to think that they heard the claims from an objective source.

Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
Kahneman, Daniel
I revieve many messages where you ask me to recommend some books related to ctirical thinking. So, the above one is the best in that field. Enjoy it!
Outcome Bias
(reading time – 20 sec.)

The outcome bias is an error made in evaluating the quality of a decision when the outcome of that decision is already known.

One will often judge a past decision by its ultimate outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made, given what was known at that time. This is an error because no decision maker ever knows whether or not a calculated risk will turn out for the best. The actual outcome of the decision will often be determined by chance, with some risks working out and others not. Individuals whose judgments are influenced by outcome bias are seemingly holding decision makers responsible for events beyond their control.

Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
The Curse of Knowledge
(reading time – 40 sec.)

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand.

For example, in a classroom setting, teachers have difficulty teaching novices because they cannot put themselves in the position of the student. A brilliant professor might no longer remember the difficulties that a young student encounters when learning a new subject. This curse of knowledge also explains the danger behind thinking about student learning based on what appears best to faculty members, as opposed to what has been verified with students.

Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Ben Franklin effect
(reading time – 50 sec.)

The Ben Franklin effect is a proposed psychological phenomenon: a person who has already performed a favor for another is more likely to do another favor for the other than if they had received a favor from that person. An explanation for this is cognitive dissonance. 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
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Functional fixedness
(reading time – 40 sec.)

Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits a person to use an object only in the way it is traditionally used. This bias limits the ability of an individual to use components given to them to complete a task, as they cannot move past the original purpose of those components. For example, if someone needs a paperweight, but they only have a hammer, they may not see how the hammer can be used as a paperweight. Functional fixedness is this inability to see a hammer's use as anything other than for pounding nails; the person couldn't think to use the hammer in a way other than in its conventional function.

When tested, 5-year-old children show no signs of functional fixedness. It has been argued that this is because at age 5, any goal to be achieved with an object is equivalent to any other goal. However, by age 7, children have acquired the tendency to treat the originally intended purpose of an object as special.

Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Decoy effect
(reading time – 30 sec.)

A phenomenon in marketing where consumers have a specific change in preference between two choices after being presented with a third choice.

An old Economist advertisement example clearly explains it.

The ad featured three subnoscription levels: $59 for online only, $159 for print only, and $159 for online and print. Ariely figured out that the option to pay $159 for print only exists so that it makes the option to pay $159 for onlineand print look more enticing than it would if it was just paired with the $59 option.

Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Serial-position effect
(reading time – 30 sec.)

Serial-position effect is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst.

For example, in some study, one participant is given "Steve is smart, diligent, critical, impulsive, and jealous." and the other "Steve is jealous, impulsive, critical, diligent, and smart." These two sentences contain the same information. The first one suggests positive trait at the beginning while the second one has negative traits. Researchers found that the subjects evaluated Steve more positively when given the first sentence, compared with the second one.

Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
Barnum effect
(reading time – 40 sec.)

The Barnum effect, also called the Forer effect, is a common psychological phenomenon whereby individuals give high accuracy ratings to denoscriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them, that are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.

This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some paranormal beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, aura reading, and some types ofpersonality tests.

Topic: #CognitiveBiases
Source: Wikipedia
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari