Mental Shortcuts That Distort Reality
Cognitive biases represent systematic patterns of deviation from rationality in judgment, stemming from the brain's attempt to simplify information processing in a complex world. The confirmation bias—perhaps the most pervasive mental shortcut—leads people to selectively seek, interpret, and remember information that confirms existing beliefs while discounting contradictory evidence. This tendency explains why individuals consuming identical news reports can draw dramatically different conclusions based on their prior convictions. The availability heuristic causes people to overestimate the likelihood of events they can easily recall, particularly those that are vivid, unusual, or emotionally charged—explaining why many fear shark attacks (which kill approximately six people globally each year) more than heart disease (responsible for nearly 18 million annual deaths). These unconscious mental processes evolved as survival mechanisms, allowing quick decisions in threatening situations, but in the modern informationrich environment, they frequently lead to flawed reasoning that affects everything from personal relationships to global policy decisions. Shutdown123