I’ve written before about the IKEA effect, but—as Daniel Kahneman warns his readers in Thinking, Fast and Slow—we are all helpless to biases, even when we know about them. I went to IKEA this weekend to pick up two tables to serve as desks in our remodeled home office—and raced home to feel that sweet, … Continue reading On the delight of IKEA
Category: Cognitive Biases
On the primacy effect
Sometimes, cognitive biases are so obvious, it seems that they require no explanation. Primacy effect is the tendency for people to prioritize the first items in a list. This tendency is not so bad when we're talking about a list that's numerically ordered—your favorite 50 songs, for instance—but it poses an issue when the list … Continue reading On the primacy effect
On cleaning cat litter
For the first five years that my wife and I had cats, I cleaned the litter a grand total of—I don't know, let's say about 100 times. That sounds like a lot until you consider that cleaning the cat litter is one of those nasty little chores that you have to do every single day. … Continue reading On cleaning cat litter
On restraint bias
I just spent a week in the company of friends—and a full package of Chips Ahoy! “Who ate all the cookies?“ my wife asked on our long drive home. “I think I ate maybe one of them.” As she well knew, the question was partly rhetorical: I ate them (or many of them). I thought … Continue reading On restraint bias
On automation bias
If ChatGPT has made anything clear to me, it's that automation is coming for us. And, with that automation—whatever form it may take—will come automation bias. I'm assuming, of course, that AI marketing bots won't be able to work entirely on their own. (At least not for a few years!) In the interim, an AI … Continue reading On automation bias
On confirmation bias
Where to even start with confirmation bias? It surrounds us—colors our very perception of the world. If we’re not paying attention, our mind will seek out information that confirms our thinking. There is something of self-preservation in this—isn’t it cognitively easier not to change your mind about something? it’s not the high road, sure—but it’s … Continue reading On confirmation bias
On the mere exposure effect
Why "mere"? Mere because just the simple fact of having previously encountered something makes it seem good or preferable later on. The weird part of this is that you don't even need to be conscious of the previous exposure. The oddity of this blew my mind when I encountered the effect in Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, … Continue reading On the mere exposure effect
On the next-in-line effect
I can't remember when I first learned about this phenomenon, but I do remember having the dumb thought: I don't fall for this. But whenever the opportunity for it next came up—going around the table introducing ourselves—I discovered that the name of the person who'd gone just before me was—well, exactly. I had no idea. … Continue reading On the next-in-line effect
On the planning fallacy
Oh, dear. If there’s a cognitive bias that defines my life, it’s this one. Ever an optimist, I am often—always—greatly underestimating how much time and effort it will take to do—well, go do just about anything. Write an email, review an RFP, eat lunch, pick a toddler up from daycare. It could be anything—the planning … Continue reading On the planning fallacy
On effort justification
The more effort you put into something, the more value you see in it. The best-known example of this may be the "IKEA effect," wherein people place higher value on the IKEA products they have bought and assembled—because of the assembly effort involved. Effort justification is one route to resolve lingering cognitive dissonance, a state … Continue reading On effort justification
Taylor Coe 