Learning the way you think, including information on common cognitive biases, can help your brain to make better, more rapid assessments on new data. This is critically important in the age of overwhelming information we are currently living in.
The average citizen is surrounded with information from TV, radio, entertainment, the Internet, social media, co-workers, neighbors, family, schools, the government as well as old sources like books, magazines, newsletters and newspaper. This overwhelming deluge of information is a mix of reporting that includes both valid insights and specious reporting meant to appear to be valid. Yes, some of what we are being subjected to is total baloney!
All of this means it is more important than every to understand the nature of cognitive bias.
You can get a quick overview in this video on 12 Cognitive Biases:
Biases covered include:
- Anchoring Bias
- Availability Heuristic Bias
- Bandwagon Bias
- Choice Supportive Bias
- Confirmation Bias
- Ostrich Bias
- Outcome Bias
- Overconfidence Bias
- Placebo Bias
- Survivorship Bias
- Selective Perception Bias
- Blind Spot Bias
Learning these biases can help you keep your wits about you in this age of interconnected computers. You see, the bad guys also study human nature, and they try all they can think of to trick you into giving them access to your systems, information and money. They want you to download malicious code into your computer to automate their theft of info. And of course they want you to click on spam links to get your mind to focus on what they want it to focus on.
And be sure to find and follow us on Twitter to continue the dialog. We are at @ThingsCyber