Availability & Confirmation Bias

Buisness 30 Jeremy Young Nicholas Whitley Sean Cogger Stephanie Moreno

Availability Bias
Definition #1:
A human cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate the probability of events associated with memorable vivid occurrences

Definition #2
People have a tendency to make decisions that are too heavily influenced by readily available information that can lead to suboptimal outcomes

Definition #3
The giving of preference by decision makers to information and the vents that are more recent that we observed personally are magnified and are likely to cause an emotional reaction.

Example #1
Lottery organizers heavily promote the jackpot winners, people are continually hearing about those who've won big. On the other hand they hear almost nothing about the vast majority of people who haven't won a dime. So people assume they are much more likely to win the lottery than they really are.

Example #2
Estimations on how prevalent airplane crashes are to occur are skewed by what people see in the news Most people believe they occur more often than they normally do

http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/08/the-availability-biaswhy-people-buy-lottery-tickets.php

Confirmation Bias
Definition #1:
Tendency to filter information to retain only what does not

Defintion #2
A type of cognitive bias in which people tend to seek out information that agrees with their previously held beliefs

Definition #3
A tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms ones preconceptions, leading to statistical errors

Example #1
A student who is going to write a research paper may primarily search for information that would confirm his or that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs

Example #2
A reporter is writing an article on an important issue may only interview experts that support his or her view

Work Cited
. PsyBlog . N.p., 06 08 2012. Web. 12 Sep 2013. <http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/08/the-availability-bias-why-people-buylottery-tickets.php>. . "Confirmation Bias." Psycology and Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sep 2013. <http://psychologyandsociety.com/confirmationbias.html>. "Availability Bias." Wise Geek. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sep 2013. <ttp://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-availability-bias.htm>. . "Availability Bias." Buisness Dicitionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sep 2013. <http://www.buisnessdictionary.com/defintion/avability-bias.htm>. . Confirmation." Buisness Dicitionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sep 2013. <http://www.buisnessdictionary.com/defintion/confirmationias.htm>. . "Confirmation Bias." Science Daily. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sep 2013. <http://www.sciencedailiy.com/articles/c/confirmation_bias.htm>.