7 Cognitive Biases That Are Quietly Running Your Life
We all like to think we’re rational decision-makers.
Reality? Our brains are full of glitches.
Here are 7 cognitive biases quietly shaping your choices every day:
1️⃣ Survivorship Bias → We only see success stories, so we assume what worked for others will work for us.
2️⃣ Sunk Cost Fallacy → We keep doing something just because we’ve already invested time/money into it.
3️⃣ The IKEA Effect → We overvalue things we put effort into—even if they’re bad ideas.
4️⃣ Negativity Bias → One negative comment outweighs ten positive ones.
5️⃣ Planning Fallacy → "This task will take 30 minutes." Three hours later…
6️⃣ Choice Overload → More options = worse decisions (think Netflix scrolling).
7️⃣ Hindsight Bias → "I knew that would happen!" (No, you didn’t.)
The good news?
Once you recognize these patterns, you can start making smarter, less biased decisions.
Which of these biases messes with you the most?
Replies
Choice overload is underrated as a silent killer of clarity.
Most people aren’t stuck — they’re just drowning in options with no internal filter.
Cognitive minimalism > endless decision trees.
@goshatirov Totally agree. Sometimes the hardest part isn’t choosing the right thing — it’s just picking something and moving forward. Less noise = more clarity.
Our perception is imperfect, but what if our brain doesn’t make decisions based on the information we consciously process? Or rather, not on the information we think we’re analyzing. There’s a theory that love is just a biochemical reaction to scents—personality, appearance, and style are secondary. So is it the reptilian brain or the neocortex? Who’s really in charge in our body?
That’s why people try to make their decisions safer by relying on big data analysis. Where is my Excel table with "-" and "+"?