Divergent thinking is problem-solving that involves generating unusual or unconventional solutions to problems. This is a type of thinking that is flexible, adaptive, and novel. By looking at a situation from a unique perspective we may experience a “light-bulb” moment that inspires a unique solution. It is the opposite of convergent thinking, which involves finding […]
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Altruism is engaging in an act that helps another person without regard to rewards or benefits to self. It involves doing something to help a person in distress that does not directly benefit yourself. People have engaged in altruistic acts since the beginning of civilization, probably even sooner than that. Even if there is no
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The tradition fallacy is a logical fallacy that relies on traditions and customs to justify a point of view (rather than logic). Traditions refer to habits that are passed down from generation to generation and are generally accepted without question. Sometimes, people refer to tradition when justifying their arguments rather than explaining the merits of
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A bandwagon fallacy is a logical fallacy in which a person reaches a conclusion only because it is a popular idea or belief and not for any logical reason related to the subject. This fallacy, also known as the bandwagon effect, gets its name from the expression ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ which means to do
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The anchoring bias, or anchoring heuristic, is when our exposure to an initial piece of information influences our perception of subsequent information. The initial exposure can then affect our decision-making. It sets the tone for how we process information that follows. One explanation involves the primacy effect (Stewart, et al., 2004). We remember things that
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A cultural bias occurs when we are inclined to interpret a situation from your own cultural perspective. This can cause cultural disagreements, confusion, and offense. We are used to things being done a certain way, so we form a very firm expectation. When we travel to another country or meet people from a different culture,
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The self-serving bias is a tendency for people to attribute success to internal factors related to themselves and blame failures on external factors. Simply speaking, we take credit for success and deny blame for failure. It is a mechanism to protect our self-esteem. Rightly or wrongly, the self-serving bias allows us to maintain confidence and
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The fundamental attribution error is a mental shortcut that involves explaining another person’s behavior in terms of their personality (rather than attributing their behavior to a situational context). We use the fundamental attribution error because it is easier to think about something in terms of a person’s personality rather than the complex situation from which
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The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias and mental shortcut that occurs when you prefer to use the most easily accessible information in your decision-making. Information that is easy to access will carry greater weight in our analysis than information that is harder to retrieve. Our minds need to process a lot of information on
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A personal reference is a reference provided by someone who knows you personally, as opposed to a professional or academic reference. Personal references are often used to confirm things about your character and your personal history, rather than your work history or qualifications. They can be useful for employers because they can give them a
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