A reading guide 5 articles
Biases and Behavior
Knowing the name of a bias is only a beginning. Look at the evidence, incentives and habits shaping a particular choice.
It is easy to spot a bias after an outcome is known, and much harder to notice one while making a decision. This collection moves from the vocabulary of cognitive biases to specific checks: what evidence you sought, what you dismissed, and whether money or effort already spent is steering your next step. The aim is to examine a judgment, not to label a person.
Begin with the overview if several ideas are unfamiliar. Move to confirmation bias when you need to test an explanation, or to sunk costs when you are deciding whether to continue. Behavioral economics adds context about how choices are presented, while the information-diet guide examines what reaches your attention in the first place. These routes complement each other, but you do not need to read them all before making one useful check.
Choose a starting point
-
Get your bearings
Build a working vocabulary, then connect each pattern to something you can actually observe.
Cognitive Biases: 5 Common Types and Why Knowing Them Fails -
Challenge a favored explanation
Ask what evidence would count against your current view, and where you could find it.
Confirmation Bias: How the FBI Matched the Wrong Fingerprint -
Reconsider a commitment
Separate what is already spent from the costs and benefits of continuing now.
Sunk Cost Fallacy: The $1.1 Billion Argument for Finishing
All articles
5 in this collectionBehavioral Economics: How One Default Changed Saving
Behavioral economics via a 401(k) default that lifted enrollment from 37% to 86%: core concepts, a subscription example, a checklist, and how nudges misfire.
Cognitive Biases: 5 Common Types and Why Knowing Them Fails
Kahneman's team forecast two years for a textbook. It took eight, and the book was never used. Five common cognitive biases, and the checks that catch them.
Confirmation Bias: How the FBI Matched the Wrong Fingerprint
Three FBI examiners matched a Madrid bombing fingerprint to the wrong man. Here is how confirmation bias works, and how to test a belief before it locks in.
How to Curate Your Information Diet Without an Echo Chamber
Learn how to curate your information diet, reduce automatic noise, and keep room for reliable news, real enjoyment, and thoughtful disagreement.
Sunk Cost Fallacy: The $1.1 Billion Argument for Finishing
In 1981, senators said halting a $1.1 billion waterway would waste taxpayer money. Here is how the sunk cost fallacy works, and a five-minute stop-or-go test.
Before you read
Does recognizing a bias remove it?
Recognition alone is not a reliable safeguard. The articles focus on checks you can perform, such as seeking contrary evidence or comparing future options on the same basis, rather than assuming awareness settles the problem.
How is this different from the decision-making collection?
This collection asks what may be distorting a judgment. Decision Making focuses on structuring the choice itself: options, criteria, uncertainty and responsibility. Use the two together when both the evidence and the process need attention.
Can I use a bias label to explain someone else's behavior?
Treat it as a possible explanation, not a diagnosis. Missing information, different priorities and practical constraints can also explain a choice. Check those possibilities before attributing it to a bias.