What Are Cognitive Biases: Types, List And Examples

Knowing cognitive biases allows an advertiser, a creative or a marketer to anticipate communication options, predict behaviors, but above all respond to the needs of consumers. It is no coincidence that successful advertising strategies are always based on satisfying the latent or pressing needs of customers. Neurobranding strategies use biases to support the creation of each communicative product: from the installation of a store to the creation of a site, from the ideation of a TV ad to print advertising, from the management of messages in social networks to the creation of an advertising campaign. See some types of cognitive biases and examples applicable in these areas will help us understand how cognitive biases work:

• He bandwagon effect: using them numbers to convince. It is one of the most used biases, but undoubtedly also the most effective, the one that sees us inclined to believe in something because many do. In fact, it is one thing to be reached by a campaign that tells us “try this amazing product”, another is if we are told “this product has already been purchased and appreciated by more than 5000 women like you” especially if we use a subject similar to that we want to convince (professional, woman, mother, doctor, etc.).
• Ben Franklin effect: offer resources in exchange for data. One of the most effective techniques is to offer a resource in exchange for something (technically called a master). For example, a discount, access to exclusive promotions, etc. This not only exponentially increases the probability that users leave us their sensitive data, but above all that they give their real data, if we make the resource reach them precisely through the latter (for example, by message or email). , because they are interested in receiving it.
• Loss aversion: You can’t miss this offer. The loss aversion along with the scarcity principle, is undoubtedly one of the most exploited trends, especially by performance-oriented campaigns. Limited time offers with a countdown countdown, “that will never be repeated”, “that you definitely cannot miss” are the order of the day, although it must be said that, abusing this bias, you are likely to lose credibility (use sparingly and honesty).

We can divide cognitive biases into four broad areas based on the 220 biases compiled, organized, and described by Buster Benson and John Brady (2018). Here some examples:

Generalizations

When things don’t make enough sense to us, we fill in the gaps and generalize.

• We imagine things and people we are familiar with as better than those we are not familiar with: cross-race effect, cheerleader effect, halo effect, etc.
• We simplify probabilities and numbers to make them easier to think about: Murphy’s law, normality bias, survivorship bias, etc.
• We think that we know what others are thinking and we assume that others know what we know: Othello error, obsequiousness bias, illusion of transparency, etc.
• We project our current mentality and our assumptions about the past and the future: outcome bias, end-of-story illusion, impact bias, etc.
• We fill the gasp in the information of our stereotypes, generalities and experiential stories: automotive bias, authority bias, bandwagon effect, etc.
• Our brain imposes stories and patterns on the world, even from sparse data: recency delusion, regression fallacy, evidence of absence bias, etc.

Simple explanations

When we feel like there isn’t enough time to figure it out, we look for what seems easy and familiar and doable.

• We prefer what seems simple or you have more information about what seems ambiguous or complex: precision bias, Occam’s razor, ambiguity bias, etc.
• We prefer to finish things we have already invested time and energy into: Ikea effect, zero risk bias, loss aversion, etc.
• We want maintain our autonomy and status, and avoid irreversible decisions: reverse psychology, social comparison bias, status quo bias, etc.
• We gravitate towards the immediate, relatable and close about the delayed and distant: identifiable victim effect, hyperbolic discounting, appeal to novelty.
• To do the things, we need to feel confident in our abilities, and feeling that what we do is important: optimistic bias, illusion of control, fundamental attribution error, etc.

Selection of information

When we get too much information, we become selective in what we notice.

• We tend to noticing flaws in other people more than we notice flaws in ourselves: naïve cynicism, blind spot bias, naïve realism.
• We pay attention to what it seems unusual or surprising omitting information that seems ordinary or expected: negativity bias, horn effect, humor effect, etc.
• We notice the change but we evaluate it more by a + or – direction than if we see the item in its changed state: Weber-Fechner law, money illusion, anchoring, etc.
• We are attracted to details that confirm our existing beliefs and we tend to ignore details that clash with them: observer effect, expectation bias, ostrich effect, etc.
• We tend to notice things more when they relate to what has been recently uploaded in our memory: empathy gap, attentional bias, context effect, etc.

Consideration of importance

When we are not sure what we need to know or remember, we choose only what we think is important.

• We edit and reinforce some memories after the fact, often swapping or injecting new details: confusion of origin, Pollyanna principle, false memory, etc.
• We tend to discard specificities to form generalities drawing stereotypes, biases and implicit associations: stereotypical biases, negative biases, faded affective biases, etc.
• We store memories differently based on how we experience them and what was important to us at the time: Google effect, test effect, next line effect, etc.
• We reduce events and lists to their key elements and the photo elements to represent the set: memory inhibition, suffix effect, memory bias, etc.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What are cognitive biases: types, list and examples we recommend that you enter our Cognitive Psychology category.