By Woo-kyoung Ahn
Cognitive biases and better thinking
Subject
Themes
Cognitive psychology can make the world a better place by helping people think more clearly and make better decisions. This book explores eight fundamental errors in human reasoning that affect daily life, from personal relationships to professional success to societal issues. Each chapter examines a specific cognitive bias and provides practical strategies to overcome it.
Cognitive psychology can make the world a better place by helping people think more clearly and make better decisions. This book explores eight fundamental errors in human reasoning that affect daily life, from personal relationships to professional success to societal issues. Each chapter examines…
Woo-kyoung Ahn's Thinking 101 represents contemporary cognitive psychology's practical turn toward applied educational interventions. Published in 2022, the work synthesises decades of research on reasoning errors into accessible lessons for general audiences. This approach reflects broader trends…
Things that the mind can easily process create dangerous illusions of competence. This fluency effect operates through multiple mechanisms, all leading to overconfidence about abilities and knowledge. When expert performances look effortless, observers mistake familiarity with capability. The…
Human reasoning systematically favours evidence that confirms existing beliefs whilst ignoring contradictory information. This confirmation bias represents one of the most pervasive and dangerous thinking errors because it creates self-reinforcing cycles that strengthen false conclusions. Peter…
Human minds excel at finding patterns and inferring causes, yet these abilities systematically mislead when assigning credit and blame. Multiple factors contribute to any outcome, but people tend to identify single causes based on what seems most salient, controllable, or recent. This…
Losses loom larger than equivalent gains in human psychology, creating systematic distortions in decision-making. This negativity bias means that losing £100 feels worse than gaining £100 feels good, despite the outcomes being objectively equivalent. The asymmetry extends far beyond simple monetary…
What seems obvious to one person may be completely opaque to another, yet people systematically fail to recognise this gap in shared understanding. The curse of knowledge means that once someone knows something, they struggle to remember what it was like not to know it. Experts cannot reconstruct…
The opening chapters examine two fundamental thinking errors that systematically mislead human reasoning. The fluency effect causes dangerous overconfidence when tasks appear easy because experts perform them effortlessly. Confirmation bias creates self-reinforcing cycles by favouring evidence…
Confirmation bias represents the most pervasive and dangerous thinking error because it creates self-reinforcing cycles that strengthen false conclusions. People systematically seek evidence supporting existing beliefs whilst ignoring contradictory information, leading to incorrect diagnoses,…
Multiple factors contribute to any outcome, yet people systematically identify single causes based on what seems most salient, controllable, or recent. Understanding the heuristics humans use for causal reasoning reveals why identical events produce radically different explanations depending on…
Vivid examples and anecdotes prove disproportionately persuasive compared to statistical evidence, even when statistics provide more accurate information. This identifiable victim effect demonstrates that single named individuals evoke stronger responses than large numbers of anonymous people,…
Losses loom larger than equivalent gains in human psychology, creating systematic distortions in decision-making. This negativity bias means losing £100 feels worse than gaining £100 feels good, despite objective equivalence. The asymmetry extends beyond money to career choices, medical decisions,…
Different people draw opposite conclusions from identical evidence because prior beliefs act as filters shaping what information people notice and how they interpret it. This biased interpretation means that showing the same data to individuals with different perspectives often strengthens rather…
What seems obvious to one person may be completely opaque to another, yet people systematically fail to recognise this gap in shared understanding. The curse of knowledge means that once someone knows something, they cannot remember what it was like not to know it. Experts cannot reconstruct the…
Present pain feels more intense than equivalent future pain, even when objective intensity is identical. This temporal discounting creates analogous problems between present and future selves that mirror perspective-taking failures between different people. Students procrastinate because starting an…
By Woo-kyoung Ahn
Subject
Themes
Cognitive psychology can make the world a better place by helping people think more clearly and make better decisions. This book explores eight fundamental errors in human reasoning that affect daily life, from personal relationships to professional success to societal issues. Each chapter examines a specific cognitive bias and provides practical strategies to overcome it.