Your and My Biased Brain

Most stupid and uninformed humans don't know about many mental biases and thinking errors that lead them to accept wrong or dubious claims and beliefs. I didn't compile the list of such biases and thinking errors  by myself. But the fact that I know such a list exists attests to a simple, incontrovertible evidence that I am sensitive to the workings of the human brain. I am no stupid monkey. I read and I reflect on what I read. I hunt for hidden knowledge. I have an agile mind. I can keep this knowledge to myself, but I am not selfish. I have a caring heart. Maybe not to Lund/VAW, though. May she remain ignorant and stupid for the rest of her fucking life. May she die a painful death. May she forever get stuck in her erroneous belief that I am a lousy fucker, and ignorant of the fact that I am a stud to those I really love. May she always believe that I am a miserly, stingy person. May she stay in darkness, forever. 

1. Anchoring.

We rely so much on one past experience or one piece of info that we ignore or reject new, more, and better info that contradicts it. 

2. Argument from authority.

Truth can come from below us and lies can come from above us. Pay less attention to the messenger and more attention to the message.

3. Argument from ignorance.

Stupid people think that the absence of a normal, sensible answer must therefore mean that ther answer is something special, magical, or supernatural. Unknown means unknown, for now. 

4. Availability cascade.

When you say something repeatedly, you are likely to believe it with increasing confidence, even if it's not true. Religious con men know about this. Watch what you pray!

5. Availability heuristic.

This is a big one. Watch out for it. Stupid people tend to be influence far more by one or two "real-life" examples in our head than by more abstract facts and statistics.

6. Backfire effect.

There is a bias that makes us believe something with greater confidence when we are confronted with evidence or strong arguments that opposite it. 

7. Base-rate fallacy.

We focus on one tiny speck of info (a single story, for example) or on bad data that supports a claim while simultaneously ignoring more credible info or a larger body of date that goes against it. 

8. Bias blind spot.

The fucking stupid Lund/VAW has this galore. We more easily see biases and illogical reasoning in others than we see in ourselves. 

9. Confabulation.

We remember things incorrectly yet feel the memory is totally accurate.

10. Confirmation bias.

11. Conformity or bandwagon effect.

12. Emoitonal bias.

Our emotions dominate our attention to the point we don't see or consider relevant info right in front of our faces. 

13. False-consensus effect. Similar to Conformity bias.

We overestimate how many people agree with us about the things we believe. This can cause people to have more confidence in their beliefs.

Examples: If everyone believes in ghosts, then ghosts must be real. Eat shit, a billion flies can't be wrong.

14. False memory.

15. Forer effect, aka Barnum effect. 

This bias explains the popularity of psychic readings and astrology. Generality is taken for particularity.

16. Framing effect.

We can be saw ayes to judge info and ideas based on who delivers them to us and how they are presented. 

17. Hallucianations.

18. Hindsight bias.

Human brains are good at keeping feeling good about ourselves. This bias is the routine lie we tell ourselves and then believe when we learn that we dead wrong about something. "I knew it all along," is an ego-soothing, natural reaction. 

19. Illusion-of-truth effect: The power of repetition 

When we hear a claim that is familiar to us, we are 

(To be continued)