Name That Cognitive Bias!

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It doesn't seem like it. Nowhere in the dialogue is Justine even described to be talking/thinking about a negative inaction, let alone judging a negative action as worse than a negative inaction.
Also, your riddle was enjoyable; write more if you want to.

I appreciate that you found it enjoyable, I have found this thread enjoyable, so thank you for starting it. :]

I am trying to figure out the last riddle first though... I thought it might be the Omission Bias, but I am still learning about these. It sounds a little bit like the Ingroup Bias because Glen is not being invited to the party because of his so called, "heartless jerk" factor, but really they are just exclusionary because they don't perceive him as one of their own, and are doing what they perceive the rest of the group believes they should do.

I'm going to make a new one even though the old one hasn't officially been solved yet, I hope nobody minds... :]

Justine, Jamie and Jim are walking around the mall wearing cowboy hats. They see another person wearing a cowboy hat and Justine turns to her friends and says, "FINALLY. Someone who has a disregard for social norms." She and her friends walk up to the cowboy hat adorned mall-goer, who is walking into one of 20 stores in the mall that sell cowboy hats, and warmly invite her to exchange e-mails and phone numbers. They do so, and after parting ways with the mall-goer they see a girl wearing a popular brand of clothing, and Jamie shouts at her, "Could you BE any more unoriginal?"

I'm looking for the main cognitive bias in here. Name that cognitive bias, you ungodly conformists! :P

'Tis be a case of the Ingroup Bias, you godly conforming nonconformist.

DING! Correct again!

I must know now what led you to your interest in/knowledge of cognitive biases. Are you a major in a particular subject? Or is it just a hobby you've taken to learning more and more about?

*Edit* Also, you are an atheist under-influenced independent! *End Edit*

Learning about cognitive biases is mostly a hobby due to my obsession with becoming a more refined Rationalist.
Although, when I was going to college I wanted to major in cognitive science - the most awesome discipline in the world - and could have learned about them that way as well, had I chosen the particular branch of cognitive psychology.
Plus, you are a reverend mind-controlled outsider!

That is cool, I don't think not majoring in it has slowed you down much anyway. :]

Also, you are an ill-informed expert in education!

The time has come for a new one. This one features one of my favorites.
Cognitive Biases.

Judith was a very bright girl - occupying the 99.5th percentile when it came to fluid intelligence. For most of her life she was the smartest person in the room, and was used to it. She was used to spotting the mistakes of others, and knowing exactly what caused the mistake. And the mistakes were rarely novel; they were usually mere variations of common mistakes she witnessed throughout her life. She regularly formed very accurate models of the minds she talked to and thus was aware of their blind spots - was aware of what they did not and could not know.

The only thing that surprised Judith was how unsurprising everyone else was.

One time, at an artificial intelligence meet-up group, she came across a fellow ranking in the 99.94th percentile, Raphael. She considered herself rather knowledgeable about the topic, yet when Raphael spoke of its technicalities she genuinely understood, on average, one in every four sentences. But it felt like it was most of it; Judith felt like she was up to par. And so she erroneously placed herself at Raphael’s level.

Judith, brilliant Judith, is manifesting a cognitive bias. And her crystallized sense of being everyone’s brainy superior makes the cognitive bias that much more crystallized. Name that cognitive bias!

Really? No one? LabPet? Moomoogelato? Care to take a stab at it?
Sorry to single you out like that, but that's only because you both seem to enjoy this game the most.

Not Projection bias, not FAE.
A creative mentioning of the contrast effect, though.

But no, I'm just looking for one cognitive bias here.
The last two sentences in the story are the strongest indicators of this cognitive bias.

Thanks for playing, and don't be discouraged to play again just because you stumbled once. This is a hard game.
A genius once said: "Its not whether you win or lose, its what sport and league you play in."

Hmm... is Judith a subject of the Overconfidence Effect? Sorry I didn't drop in sooner, I've been out of town!

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) came up with the first work on cognitive bias.

In the Novum Organum (the new instrumentality for the acquisition of knowledge) Francis Bacon classified the intellectual fallacies of his time under four headings which he called idols. He distinguished them as idols of the Tribe, idols of the Cave, idols of the Marketplace and idols of the Theater.

An idol is an image, in this case held in the mind, which receives veneration but is without substance in itself. Bacon did not regard idols as symbols, but rather as fixations. In this respect he anticipated modern psychology.



Idols of the Tribe are deceptive beliefs inherent in the mind of man, and therefore belonging to the whole of the human race. They are abstractions in error arising from common tendencies to exaggeration, distortion, and disproportion. Thus men gazing at the stars perceive the order of the world, but are not content merely to contemplate or record that which is seen. They extend their opinions, investing the starry heavens with innumerable imaginary qualities. In a short time these imaginings gain dignity and are mingled with the facts until the compounds become inseparable. This may explain Bacon's epitaph which is said to be a summary of his whole method. It reads, "Let all compounds be dissolved."



Idols of the Cave are those which arise within the mind of the individual. This mind is symbolically a cavern. The thoughts of the individual roam about in this dark cave and are variously modified by temperament, education, habit, environment, and accident. Thus an individual who dedicates his mind to some particular branch of learning becomes possessed by his own peculiar interest, and interprets all other learning according to the colors of his own devotion. The chemist sees chemistry in all things, and the courtier ever present at the rituals of the court unduly emphasizes the significance of kings and princes.

(The title page of Bacon's New Atlantis (London 1626) is ornamented with a curious design or printer's device. The winged figure of Father Time is shown lifting a female figure from a dark cave. This represents truth resurrected from the cavern of the intellect.)



Idols of the Marketplace are errors arising from the false significance bestowed upon words, and in this classification Bacon anticipated the modern science of semantics. According to him it is the popular belief that men form their thoughts into words in order to communicate their opinions to others, but often words arise as substitutes for thoughts and men think they have won an argument because they have out talked their opponents. The constant impact of words variously used without attention to their true meaning only in turn condition the understanding and breed fallacies. Words often betray their own purpose, obscuring the very thoughts they are designed to express.





Idols of the Theater are those which are due to sophistry and false learning. These idols are built up in the field of theology, philosophy, and science, and because they are defended by learned groups are accepted without question by the masses. When false philosophies have been cultivated and have attained a wide sphere of dominion in the world of the intellect they are no longer questioned. False superstructures are raised on false foundations, and in the end systems barren of merit parade their grandeur on the stage of the world.



A careful reading of the Novum Organum will show. Bacon used the theater with its curtain and its properties as a symbol of the world stage. It might even be profitable to examine the Shakespearean plays with this viewpoint in mind.


WHOOPS. I forget to mention that I got the quoted material from Wikipedia, the article on Francis Bacon. It is not my words, but quoted words.


ruveyn