por If you are one of those who goes to the movies and orders popcorn, maybe you had to choose between options similar to this:
If you have chosen the €6.50 popcorn thinking it was the best option of all, you have “taken the bait.”
This is what is called andThe “decoy” effect. This phenomenon occurs when, To two alternatives, a third, less attractive option (the decoy) is added to influence our perception. of the two originals.
This effect It is one of hundreds of cognitive biases most used to influence our purchasing decisions.
And so what are cognitive biases?
What are cognitive biases and how do they influence our decisions?
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman (authors of the prospect theory) define cognitive biases as “lThe systematic, but supposedly defective, response patterns of people to problems of judgment and decision.
Basically, cognitive biases are your brain’s responses to thousands of everyday decisions what you have to take.
And the issue of decisions is not trivial, since orThe average adult takes about 35,000 a day: what to eat, what to buy, what to wear, etc.
Given this amount of stimuli, in order not to become saturated, nour brain looks for ways to save energy through two systems.
System 1 is fast and, at the same time, emotional. System 2 is characterized by its slowness and logic. In his book Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow (2012), Kahneman defines this phenomenon of the human mind as follows:
System 1 operates quickly and automatically, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.
System 2 focuses attention on effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex calculations. System 2 operations are often associated with the subjective experience of acting, choosing, and concentrating.
Kahneman points out that The difference between System 1 and 2 seeks to optimize the way in which we process information.
System 1, specifically, is characterized by being fast and this speed is what makes most of the daily decisions, which makes it clear thatMost people are not as rational as they think. That is when cognitive biases come to play a main role in the judgments we make daily.
But how many cognitive biases are there and what are they characterized by?
Categories of cognitive biases
According to categorization made by Buster Benson (author of the book Why are we yelling?) cognitive biases can be divided into 4 broad categories:
Too much information o Too much information: composed of biases that help us filter information.
Not Enough Meaning o There is not enough meaning: yesesgos that help us form a specific opinion.
What should we remember? o What should we remember?: These biases determine the way we remember people or places. Likewise, we tend to prioritize or give relevance to the type of information in our memory.
Need to act fast o The need to act quickly: toThose biases that determine the way we make decisions.
Let’s see what cognitive biases are with some examples.
Examples of cognitive biases
Some biases may resonate more with you than others.because they have been a topic of conversation or we have heard them in everyday situations, such as the Placebo Effect or Murphy’s Law. However, the list currently exceeds 200, and these are only those that have been identified or studied.
In summary, this article has been a small introduction to behavioral economics, heuristics and cognitive blindness. If you want to expand the information presented here, we recommend taking a look at this graph that details them in a broad way or this other as a summary.
We also recommend some books that have served as a source for this post as Think fast, think slow by Daniel Kahneman, The traps of desire: how to control the irrational impulses that lead us to error by Dan Ariely and PsychoGrowth I: Hacking your buyers’ brains by José Carlos Cortizo Pérez.
Do you want to learn more about cognitive biases, the history of Digital Marketing, behavioral economics and at the same time give a change to your career? If this is the case, our Digital Marketing and Data Analysis Bootcamp is for you.