Cognitive Biases
Coming Soon - Discover the sneaky tricks your brain plays on you and become a better decision-maker.
Cognitive biases are little mistakes our brains tend to make, usually because they want to take shortcuts to come to a decision quickly.
In Critikid’s cognitive bias lessons, you will learn only which cognitive biases we have, but why we have them. For example, when people stand at the edge of a cliff and look down, they tend to think the ground is farther away than it is. This cognitive bias makes people not want to jump unless they really have to. Many cognitive biases are there because they help to keep us safe.
Still, it is important to be able to recognize and understand our cognitive biases because understanding them helps us to understand our minds.
What is a cognitive bias?
Cognitive biases are systematic mistakes in thinking and judgment.
Critikid’s cognitive bias videos will teach kids not only about what cognitive biases we have, but why we have them. For example, when people stand at the edge of a cliff and estimate the distance to the ground, they have a bias toward overestimating the distance. And this makes perfect sense. This cognitive bias encourages people not to jump unless they really have to. Many cognitive biases are there because they help to keep us safe. Still, it is important to be able to recognize and understand them.
Cognitive bias examples
If you believe someone is guilty of a crime, you will pay more attention to the evidence that shows they are guilty than the evidence that shows they are innocent. This is called the “confirmation bias”, which means that we tend to put more weight into information that confirms what we already believe.
Here’s another. If you see a chocolate bar for sale for $6, and then see another one for sale for $4, and finally one for sale for $2, you might think the $4 chocolate bar is not a bad deal. But if you see a chocolate bar for $2 first, then $4, and then $6, the $4 chocolate bar might seem unreasonably expensive. This is called the “anchoring effect”, in which people base their judgments more heavily on the first piece of information they receive.