Cognitive: Key concept 6 Flashcards
Cognitive biases
Errors in how we process information, which affect our attention, memory and decision making.
Confirmation bias
We pay more attention to (and recall more easily) information that supports our existing beliefs. We may seek out and ignore contradictory information.
Fundamental attribution error
In explaining the reasons for other people’s behaviour, we focus on their personal characteristics and overlook the role of the situation.
Hostile attribution error
A tendency to assume that someone else’s behaviour has an aggressive or antagonistic motive when it is actually neutral.
What are the negative effects of cognitive biases?
Automatic and affect what we notice, what we remember, how we make decisions and how we interpret other people’s behaviour. So how we process information becomes flawed and our ability to make rational choices is undermined.
What are the positive effects of cognitive biases?
Simplify how we view the world and allow us to make decisions quickly.
FAE: Attribution
How we try to explain the reasons for other people’s behaviour.
FAE: Fundamental error
Most people overemphasise personal characteristics and downplay situations - this is a bias towards one explanation.
Conformation bias
We favour the beliefs we already hold. We notice confirmatory information quickly and we store and recall it easily. But we ignore, downplay or reject examples that challenge our beliefs, and eventually we don’t even look for contradictory information.
Hostile attribution error
- Wrongly believes someone else’s behaviour is threatening when it is actually neutral.
- Believes the person is being hostile because that is what the other person is like. However, this ignores the role of the situation.
Practical applications evaluation
Strength of cognitive biases is that they can be applied to real-world behaviour. For example, we can work to overcome conformation bias by deliberately seeking out information that contradicts our exiting views about political parties or football teams. This skill is useful because, by understanding cognitive biases, we can improve our decision making and reduce negative effects on behaviour.
Research support evaluation
Strength is evidence of the link between hostile attribution bias and aggression. For example, people with strong HAB often behave aggressively - when behaving aggressively, they may experience a temporary increase in their hostile attribution, making aggression more likely. This shows that the central role of HAB in aggressive behaviour, and also a potential way of tackling it.
The FAE is not universal evaluation
Weakness is that the fundamental attribution error only exists in some cultures. For example, in individualist cultures people tend to value individual needs above the needs of the wider community, behaviour is usually attributed to individual characteristics - this is how behaviour is understood. However, in collectivist cultures the group/community is prioritised over individual needs, so people more often attribute behaviour to situational factors rather than to personality. This suggests that the FAE may not be a ‘fundamental’ feature of human information processing after all.
