Just about everyone has an opinion about Facebook. A favorite theme is loneliness. There are those who believe that Americans (among others) are becoming lonelier and that our habits of connecting by Facebook instead of in person are hastening our slide into isolation. From that perspective, people constantly posting status updates are revealing their own loneliness. Others instead believe that Facebook allows people to stay…
Facebook Status Updates as Social Snacking
The 12 Cognitive Biases That Prevent You From Being Rational (Part 2)
Humans are subject to cognitive biases, those annoying glitches in our thinking that cause us to make questionable decisions and reach erroneous conclusions. Here are the most common and pernicious cognitive biases that you need to know about. Status-Quo Bias We humans tend to be apprehensive of change, which often leads us to make choices that guarantee that things remain the same, or change as…
The 12 Cognitive Biases That Prevent You From Being Rational (Part 1)
A cognitive bias is a genuine deficiency or limitation in our thinking — a flaw in judgment that arises from errors of memory, social attribution, and miscalculations (such as statistical errors or a false sense of probability). Some social psychologists believe our cognitive biases help us process information more efficiently, especially in dangerous situations. Still, they lead us to make grave mistakes. We may be…