The 5 Biggest Biases We Fall Victim to

This is a good post from Bruce Schneier's blog, originally published in 2011. While I can’t claim this list represents the top five cognitive biases in an empirical sense, it certainly covers a broad spectrum of the holes that tend to occur in human reasoning.

• We tend to exaggerate spectacular and rare risks and downplay common risks.
• The unknown is perceived to be riskier than the familiar.
• Personified risks are perceived to be riskier than anonymous risks.
• We underestimate risks in situations we do control, and overestimate risks in situations we don’t control.
• We estimate the probability of something by how easy it is to bring examples to mind. (cont.)

...Newspapers repeat rare risks again and again. When something is in the news, it is, by definition, something that almost never happens. Things that are so common they stop becoming newsworthy—like car accidents—are what you need to worry about.

"The 5 Biggest Biases We Fall Victim to"