Introduction
We often see a well-educated, rational person making the most illogical decision one could expect. Why does an intelligent human behave in such a baffling way, believing in irrational ideas and indulging in senseless practices? Well, this is due to some hidden glitches that shape critical thinking. Humans take shortcuts, relying on habits and being influenced by emotions. These shortcuts are known as cognitive biases, and the common errors that they make in their reasoning are known as logical fallacies. In this blog posts we discuss the most common fallacies and biases that are very important when understanding the science of the human mind.
Logical Fallacies
- Ad Hominem Fallacy: It is the act of attacking the person making an argument instead of the argument itself. This is often used by desperate people in an attempt to win an argument by questioning the intelligence, ethics, logic, and even the qualifications of the opposition.
- Strawman Fallacy: In this error, the person making the fallacy deliberately misrepresents the opponent’s arguments, so that it can be easier to refute. It is a dangerous tool, where the opposition’s argument can be turned into a laughable parody, even if the argument is reasonably sound.
- False Dilemma: This fallacy happens when only two options are presented as the only possible solutions, although many more options exist, leading to a false dichotomy of choice.
- Circular Reasoning: It is the error when one person claims that A is because of B, and B is because of A, thereby repeating the same argument again and again without progressing to any conclusion.
- Appeal to Authority: Here, a person argues that something is true because an authority on that matter says so, however illogical it may sound. It is a very common fallacy used especially in academic and professional circles.
- Appeal to Emotion: When a person tries to win an argument by manipulating emotions instead of logic and facts, the fallacy is called appeal to emotion. Here, the person using the fallacy may play the victim, thereby gaining the audience’s sympathy through emotions.
- Bandwagon Fallacy: When a person believes or does something because everyone else believes or does so, it is known as bandwagon fallacy. Here, the person joins the bandwagon of the contemporary practice and even defends it without any logic or reason.
- Red Herring: It is the act of diverting attention from the topic to a totally irrelevant topic. It is named after the Red Herring fish, whose odor can distract even a well-trained bloodhound.
Cognitive Biases
- Confirmation Bias: It is the act of seeking information that supports one’s existing beliefs, while neglecting all the information that goes against it. We often make this bias intentionally or unintentionally.
- Anchoring Bias: When a person relies on or anchors on the first piece of information to judge or perceive other information, this bias is called anchoring bias.
- Negativity Bias: In this bias, a person only focuses on the negative experiences over a certain topic, even though similar or more positive experiences are reported from the same topic.
- Halo Effect: When one positive trait influences the perception of all other negative traits, the bias is known as the Halo effect. For example, in movies, we generally have an attractive lead, thereby creating the bias that all attractive individuals are good at heart.
- Status Quo Bias: This bias is created due to the tendency to prefer things to remain the same forever, even if they are harmful, as the person with the bias has already become habituated with that.
- Recency Bias: A very popular bias, this act occurs when one gives importance to recent events over older ones, even if they deserve more importance.
- Illusory Correlation: It is the tendency to see connections between two independent events, even if they are totally unrelated.
- Authority Bias: Similar to appeal to authority, this bias happens when we blindly believe someone about a topic, as the person is considered an expert in the field. We give preference to the authority over our reason in believing the person’s words or acts.
Conclusion
Human behavior is a very exciting and intriguing topic. And interestingly, the so-called most intelligent species makes its decisions clouded by fallacies and biases. True intelligence isn’t about never being wrong. It’s about knowing when our brain is fooling us and daring to question it.
References
You can also read my original blog post published in theindicscholar.com by clicking here.