# Cognitive bias and fallacies list - social-specific ## Socially Under-thinking Curse of knowledge/curse of expertise - we're unaware other people don't have the same knowledge as us Enemy mine - we assume 2 beliefs that share their dislike for a 3rd one must be compatible Gender bias - we assume [genders](gender.md) automatically can or can't do certain things Group attribution error - we assume either one group member represents [the entire group](groups-member.md), or the group's decision reflects each individual's beliefs Identifiable victim effect/compassion fade - we only help people when we see 1 person's suffering, but not when it's many people Obscurity appeal/Chewbacca defense - we justify things from potentially irrelevant (non-sequitur) or incorrect information, then believe it's valid because others don't know that information Out-group homogeneity effect/out-group homogeneity bias - we assume others outside our group are collectively more similar than the people inside our group Reverse psychology - people who oppose us can influence us to do what they want by asking the opposite of their desires Social cryptomnesia - we forget who did things Stereotype/essentialism/implicit bias - we assume specific things about others define the entirety of who they are Straw man fallacy/ridicule appeal - we use silly over-simplified versions of others' beliefs when we disagree with them Women are wonderful effect - we give more positive attributes to women than men ## Bad Social Predictions Ad hoc - we use speculation as a basis for potential facts Agent detection/hard work fallacy - we presume someone is always responsible, even for random events Armchair fallacy - we assume we understand the effort required for others' [creations](creations.md) when we don't know Fundamental attribution error/actor-observer bias - we assume people choose and control their situations more than circumstances affecting it Hawthorne effect/evaluation apprehension - we change our behavior when we know we're being observed Intentionality bias - we assume people do things intentionally Placement bias - we misjudge ourselves compared to others - Overconfidence effect/illusory superiority/Lake Wobegon effect/better-than-average effect - we think we're better at things than others - Worse-than-average effect - we assume we're worse than others at doing things Pluralistic ignorance - we assume we're the only person thinking something, even when everyone else is Transparency illusion - we believe other people know what we're thinking when they don't ## Bad Social Optimism Assumed similarity bias - we assume others have more in common than us than they do Bystander effect - we expect other people around us to act when something must be done False consensus effect - we overestimate how much other people agree with us Halo effect/noble edge effect - we assume our positive impression of someone or a [group](groups-large.md) means they're also good deep-down In-group favoritism/in-group-out-group bias/in-group bias/intergroup bias/in-group preference - we favor members of our group more than outsiders Original position fallacy - we prefer a change because we assume we'll be on the good side of that change Public goods game - we assume an [economic system](money-economics.md) could exist where we didn't have to regulate lazy people, cheaters, liars, and thieves Sexual overperception bias - we assume others are sexually attracted to us when they aren't Truth bias - we assume others are speaking the truth ## Bad Social Cynicism Extrinsic incentives bias - we assume others care more about outer incentives than inner incentives (e.g., money over learning skills) than we do Hostile attribution bias - we assume others have hostile intent even when we don't know Human nature fallacy - we assume human nature is inherently bad Puritanical bias - we assume people do bad things from moral failure without any context Sexual underperception bias - we assume others aren't sexually attracted to us when they are Shared information bias - we spend lots of time retelling people things they already know Third-person effect - we believe other people are more influenced by large-scale [media](stories-storytellers.md) than we are Trait ascription bias - we assume our [personalities](personality.md) are flexible and others' aren't Ultimate attribution error - we assume motivations for our groups are good and motivations for groups we're not in are bad ## Bad Social Submission Abilene effect - we collectively decide for something that's bad for most or all of us Authority bias/authority argument/authority appeal - we give weight to an authority figure's opinion Availability cascade - we follow what others believe and do, who follow what others believe and do Bandwagon effect/groupthink - we do and believe things because others are doing it Ben Franklin effect - we're more likely to do favors for people we've already done favors for Cheerleader effect/group attractiveness effect - we think individuals are more attractive when they're in a group Group shift - we adapt to more or less risk than the rest of our group HIPPO problem - we trust the Highest Individually Paid Person's Opinion Illusory truth effect/validity effect/reiteration effect - we'll think a lie is true if we're repeatedly exposed to it Nausea argument (ad nauseam) - we believe we've dispelled an argument beforehand, so it's not worth discussing anymore Observer-expectancy effect/experimenter-expectancy effect/expectancy bias/observer effect/experimenter effect/subject-expectancy effect - the participants of experiments are affected toward researchers' biases Pity appeal - we give more grace than we should because we feel sorry for people Publication bias - we publish [scientific papers](science.md) that validate existing scientific bias Pygmalion effect - we do what others expect of us Saying is believing effect - we listen more closely to when messages are adapted to the audience Survey bias/social desirability bias/courtesy bias/flattery appeal/popularity appeal - we tend to tweak our answers toward whatever is [socially acceptable](trends.md) System justification - we believe any existing system is good to maintain Wealth appeal/Colbert bump - we give weight to a wealthy or famous person's opinion ## Social Conceit Asymmetric insight illusion - we believe we know others more than they know us Barnum-Forer effect - we believe generic descriptions of a person apply to us Bias blind spot/naïve cynicism/naïve realism/objectivity illusion - we see others' bias, but think we see things objectively Egocentric bias - we remember things as better than they were Explanatory depth illusion - we think we can do difficult things more than we can False uniqueness bias - we believe we and our [creations](creations.md) are more unique than they really are Moral credential effect - we feel we can do immoral things if we've done moral things before it Social comparison bias - we dislike and compete with others we imagine are better than us Special pleading - we believe [general rules for human behavior](people-rules.md) don't apply to us Spotlight effect - we believe others notice us more than they really do ## Skewing Antisocially Automation bias - we assume [automated decision-making systems](technology.md) are more unbiased than people Backfire effect - we intensify our convictions when they're challenged Empathy gap/empathy bias - we tend to feel *no* empathy for others even when we ought to Inherent nature appeal - we assume something unacceptable is acceptable because the person's nature is to do it