Cognitive Biases : Is your brain rational?
Your brain is not as rational as you may think it is. Brain often try to simplify information processing to make sense out of available information. If you had to think about every possible option while making a decision, it would probably take a lot of time to make even the simplest choice. Because of the sheer complexity of the world around you and the amount of information in the environment, it is necessary sometimes to rely on some mental shortcuts that allow you to act quickly. Some of these shortcuts are cognitive biases.
“ A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that affects the decisions and judgments that people make.”
There are hundreds of known cognitive biases, i.e., there are hundreds of ways to ditch logical thinking of your brain. Unfortunately, these biases sometimes trip us up, leading to poor decisions and bad judgments. These biases are not necessarily all bad, however. Psychologists believe that many of these biases serve an adaptive purpose they allow us to reach decisions quickly.
Out of hundreds of known biases there are 12 biases that are very prominent and often used by companies, designers and brands to trick you or let’s say make you choose what they want you to choose. It obviously doesn’t make sense to cover all the biases, however a few interesting phenomenons (Biases) are worth mentioning.
- Von-Restorff Effect ( Isolation effect ) :
Isolation effect states that “ When multiple homogeneous objects are presented together, the objects that differs are more likely to be remembered ”. Using this effect certain choices or alternatives could be made look more attractive. This effect could also help User Interface designers to fulfil first heuristic criteria which is visibility of system status the best example is carousel dots.
2. Ikea Effects :
The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which “consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created”. The name derives from the name of Swedish manufacturer and furniture retailer IKEA, which sells many furniture products that require assembly. This effect is not limited till the DIY products, digital products like Facebook, Bitmoji, Tinder etc, are successful and very addictive. If analysed closely, its obvious how this effect is working in the background. The probable cause of this effect is the high sense of belongingness which is induced because of effort that someone puts in. This effort also motivated the user to keep the product forever(at-least until it gets obsolete).
Interestingly, the research suggests that our efforts lead to increased valuation only when we successfully complete tasks. When participants built and then destroyed their creations, or failed to complete them, the IKEA effect dissipated. As a result their willingness to pay for the item declined.
3. Framing Effect :
“Positive frames converts better”. Your decision making processes are influenced by the way the information is presented eg. A half filled glass is often better than a half empty glass.
Which one of these products would you pick: A ‘95% effective’ condom or a ‘5% failure’ condom? ‘80% lean’ ground beef or ‘20%’ fat ground beef? Most people would be more likely to choose the first option in both cases, even though the two choices are identical.
The framing effect has consistently proven to be one of the strongest biases in decision making.The ways in which framing can be used are nearly unlimited from emotional appeals to social pressure to priming. When a positive frame is presented people are more likely to avoid risks, but will be risk-seeking when a negative frame is presented.
There are many more biases and it’s quite obvious these biases influences our rational thinking with visuals, creating sense of belongingness, adjusting the context, establishing trust and strategy. Unfortunately there is often no way around them, although they aren’t always bad, sometimes these biases helps us in making better decisions. However in most of the cases these biases helps businesses to either extract more money out of user’s pockets, “If used correctly”.