Name

Type

Description

Actor-observer bias

Attribution bias

The tendency for explanations of other individuals’ behaviors to overemphasize the influence of their personality and underemphasize the influence of their situation (see also Fundamental attribution error), and for explanations of one’s own behaviors to do the opposite (that is, to overemphasize the influence of our situation and underemphasize the influence of our own personality).

Authority bias

Association fallacy

The tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure (unrelated to its content) and be more influenced by that opinion.

Availability cascade

Conformity bias

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”).

Bandwagon effect

Conformity bias

The tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Related to groupthink and herd behavior.

Ben Franklin effect

Cognitive dissonance

A person who has performed a favor for someone is more likely to do another favor for that person than they would be if they had received a favor from that person.

Bias blind spot

Egocentric bias

The tendency to see oneself as less biased than other people, or to be able to identify more cognitive biases in others than in oneself.

Cheerleader effect

Association fallacy

The tendency for people to appear more attractive in a group than in isolation.

Courtesy bias

Conformity bias

The tendency to give an opinion that is more socially correct than one’s true opinion, so as to avoid offending anyone.

Defensive attribution hypothesis

Egocentric bias

Attributing more blame to a harm-doer as the outcome becomes more severe or as personal or situational similarity to the victim increases.

Egocentric bias

Egocentric bias

Occurs when people claim more responsibility for themselves for the results of a joint action than an outside observer would credit them with.

Extrinsic incentives bias

Attribution bias

An exception to the fundamental attribution error, when people view others as having (situational) extrinsic motivations and (dispositional) intrinsic motivations for oneself

False consensus effect

Egocentric bias

The tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which others agree with them.

False uniqueness bias

Egocentric bias

The tendency of people to see their projects and themselves as more singular than they actually are.

Fundamental attribution error

Attribution bias

The tendency for people to over-emphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior (see also actor-observer bias, group attribution error, positivity effect, and negativity effect).

Group attribution error

The biased belief that the characteristics of an individual group member are reflective of the group as a whole or the tendency to assume that group decision outcomes reflect the preferences of group members, even when information is available that clearly suggests otherwise.

Groupthink

Conformity bias

The psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

Halo effect

Association fallacy

The tendency for a person’s positive or negative traits to “spill over” from one personality area to another in others’ perceptions of them (see also physical attractiveness stereotype).

Hostile attribution bias

Attribution bias

The “hostile attribution bias” is the tendency to interpret others’ behaviors as having hostile intent, even when the behavior is ambiguous or benign.

Illusion of asymmetric insight

Egocentric bias

People perceive their knowledge of their peers to surpass their peers’ knowledge of them.

Illusion of transparency

Egocentric bias

The tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which their personal mental state is known by others, and to overestimate how well they understand others’ personal mental states.

Illusory superiority

Egocentric bias

Overestimating one’s desirable qualities, and underestimating undesirable qualities, relative to other people. (Also known as “Lake Wobegon effect”, “better-than-average effect”, or “superiority bias”.)

Ingroup bias

Ingroup bias

The tendency for people to give preferential treatment to others they perceive to be members of their own groups.

Intentionality bias

Attribution bias

Tendency to judge human action to intentional rather than accidental.

Just-world hypothesis

Attribution bias

The tendency for people to want to believe that the world is fundamentally just, causing them to rationalize an otherwise inexplicable injustice as deserved by the victim(s).

Moral luck

Attribution bias

The tendency for people to ascribe greater or lesser moral standing based on the outcome of an event.

Naïve cynicism

Egocentric bias

Expecting more egocentric bias in others than in oneself.

Naïve realism

Egocentric bias

The belief that we see reality as it really is – objectively and without bias; that the facts are plain for all to see; that rational people will agree with us; and that those who don’t are either uninformed, lazy, irrational, or biased.

Not invented here

Ingroup bias

Aversion to contact with or use of products, research, standards, or knowledge developed outside a group. Related to IKEA effect.

Outgroup homogeneity bias

Ingroup bias

Individuals see members of their own group as being relatively more varied than members of other groups.

Puritanical bias

Attribution bias

Refers to the tendency to attribute cause of an undesirable outcome or wrongdoing by an individual to a moral deficiency or lack of self-control rather than taking into account the impact of broader societal determinants .

Pygmalion effect

The phenomenon whereby others’ expectations of a target person affect the target person’s performance.

Reactance

The urge to do the opposite of what someone wants you to do out of a need to resist a perceived attempt to constrain your freedom of choice (see also Reverse psychology).

Reactive devaluation

Devaluing proposals only because they purportedly originated with an adversary.

Self-serving bias

Attribution bias

The tendency to claim more responsibility for successes than failures. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to their interests (see also group-serving bias).

Sexual overperception bias / Sexual underperception bias

False priors

The tendency to over-/underestimate sexual interest of another person in oneself.

Social comparison bias

The tendency, when making decisions, to favour potential candidates who don’t compete with one’s own particular strengths.

Social desirability bias

Conformity bias

The tendency to over-report socially desirable characteristics or behaviours in oneself and under-report socially undesirable characteristics or behaviours. See also: § Courtesy bias.

Shared information bias

Known as the tendency for group members to spend more time and energy discussing information that all members are already familiar with (i.e., shared information), and less time and energy discussing information that only some members are aware of (i.e., unshared information).

Trait ascription bias

Egocentric bias

The tendency for people to view themselves as relatively variable in terms of personality, behavior, and mood while viewing others as much more predictable.

Third-person effect

Egocentric bias

A hypothesized tendency to believe that mass communicated media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves. As of 2020, the third-person effect has yet to be reliably demonstrated in a scientific context.

Ultimate attribution error

Attribution bias

Similar to the fundamental attribution error, in this error a person is likely to make an internal attribution to an entire group instead of the individuals within the group.

Worse-than-average effect

A tendency to believe ourselves to be worse than others at tasks which are difficult.