# cognitive biases **bandwagon effect** - the tendency to do things because many other people do the same **confirmation bias** - the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions **congruence bias** - the tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing, in contrast to tests of possible alternative hypotheses **endowment effect** - the fact that people often demand much more to give up an object than they would be willing to pay to acquire it **impact bias** - the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states **information bias** - the tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action **irrational escalation** - the tendency to make irrational decisions based upon rational decisions in the past or to justify actions already taken **loss aversion** - the disutility of giving up an object is greater than the utility associated with acquiring it **omission bias** - the tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral, than equally harmful omissions **outcome bias** - the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made **selective perception** - the tendency for expectations to affect perception **survivorship bias** - a form of selection bias focusing on what has survived to the present and ignoring what must have been lost **gambler's fallacy** - the tendency to assume that independent random events are influenced by previous random events **hindsight bias** - the inclination to see past events as being predictable, based on knowledge of later events **recency effect** - the tendency to weigh recent events more than earlier events **overconfidence effect** - the tendency to overestimate one's own abilities **false consensus effect** - the tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which others agree with them **halo effect** - the tendency for a person's positive or negative traits to "spill over" from one area of their personality to another in others' perceptions of them **herd instinct** - a common tendency to adopt the opinions and follow the behaviors of the majority to feel safer and to avoid conflict **projection bias** - the tendency to unconsciously assume that others share the same or similar thoughts, beliefs, values, or positions **self-fulfilling prophecy** - the tendency to engage in behaviors that elicit results which will confirm our beliefs **consistency bias** - incorrectly remembering one's past attitudes and behavior as resembling present attitudes and behavior **egocentric bias** - recalling the past in a self-serving manner --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://um.fz.ax/self/cognitive-biases.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.