Too Much
Information.
The world keeps trying to tell you everything. Brains keep trying not to listen to most of it. The biases below are the small, useful, sometimes embarrassing ways we decide what's worth noticing.
The filters you should know.
Tap any card for the full entry. Pages marked coming soon are still being written.
Confirmation Bias
We notice and remember evidence that fits what we already believe.
Availability Heuristic
Things easy to recall feel more common, true, or important.
Attentional Bias
Recurring thoughts and worries quietly steer what we see.
Frequency Illusion
After noticing something once, we suddenly see it everywhere.
Negativity Bias
Bad outcomes register louder and stick longer than good ones.
Selective Perception
Expectations filter what users actually see on a screen.
Bias Blind Spot
We catch bias in others while believing ourselves clear-eyed.
Change Blindness
We often miss large changes in our visual field when our attention is elsewhere.
Illusory Truth Effect
Repeated exposure makes a claim feel more credible — even when it's false.
Inattentional Blindness
We miss unexpected things in plain sight when our attention is elsewhere.
Automation Bias
We over-trust automated outputs and under-scrutinise what algorithms tell us.
Base Rate Fallacy
Vivid cases override base-rate statistics when we judge what is likely or typical.
Bizarreness Effect
Bizarre or surprising details are remembered better than ordinary ones — and mistaken for the norm.
Choice-Supportive Bias
We retroactively upgrade choices we have already made, remembering them as better than they were.
Congruence Bias
We prefer testing one favoured hypothesis over comparing plausible alternatives.
Conservatism Bias
New evidence updates our beliefs more slowly than Bayesian logic would predict.
Continued Influence Effect
Debunked misinformation continues to influence reasoning even after people accept the correction.
Contrast Effect
Perception of a stimulus shifts depending on contrasting items seen immediately before or beside it.
Distinction Bias
Side-by-side comparison exaggerates minor differences between similar options.
Expectation Bias
Expectations distort observation: we notice and interpret evidence to fit what we already believe.
Experimenter's Bias
Researchers unconsciously influence experiments toward expected outcomes through subtle cues and procedural choices.
Focusing Effect
People overweight attributes that are prominent in discussion or comparison while neglecting others that matter in use.
Humor Effect
Humorous information is remembered better than non-humorous information.
Money Illusion
People think in nominal monetary values rather than real purchasing power or relative cost.
Mood-Congruent Memory Bias
Current mood biases recall toward mood-matching memories — sad moods retrieve sad episodes more easily.
Naïve Cynicism
People assume others' actions are driven by self-interest and manipulation more than they actually are.
Naïve Realism
People believe they perceive reality directly and that those who disagree are uninformed, irrational, or biased.
Observer Effect
People modify behaviour when they know they are being observed.
Observer-Expectancy Effect
Researchers' expectations unconsciously influence participants' behaviour and results.
Omission Bias
Harm caused by inaction is judged less harshly than equal harm caused by action.
Ostrich Effect
People avoid information that threatens their self-image or comfort — figuratively burying their heads.
Post-Purchase Rationalization
After committing to a choice, people inflate benefits and downplay flaws to reduce cognitive dissonance.
Self-Relevance Effect
Information related to the self is processed more deeply and remembered better.
Semmelweis Reflex
New evidence that contradicts established norms or identity is reflexively rejected.
Subjective Validation
People accept vague or general statements as personally meaningful and accurate.
Weber–Fechner Law
Perceived intensity of a stimulus is proportional to the logarithm of its physical magnitude — we notice relative change, not absolute.
Three other ways minds bend.
Not Enough
Meaning
Not Enough
Meaning
Stories, patterns, and confident-sounding causes filling in the gaps.
Need to
Act Fast
Need to
Act Fast
Decisions made before the picture is complete — and how to design for them.
What Should
We Remember
What Should
We Remember
Memory as reconstruction — peaks, endings, and the odd-one-out.