Cognitive bias

New research debunks the ‘unhappy worker’ narrative, but finds most still believe it

Retrieved on:

Dimanche, février 11, 2024

Love, Internet, Workplace, Great Resignation, Job satisfaction, News, McMaster University, Perception, Cognitive bias, The Wall Street Journal, Social inequality, Optimism, General Social Survey, YouGov, Work, Research

As a sociologist who studies how people think and feel about work, I’ve been struck by the unflattering cultural narrative that has intensified around work in recent years.

Key Points:

As a sociologist who studies how people think and feel about work, I’ve been struck by the unflattering cultural narrative that has intensified around work in recent years.
A Wall Street Journal headline from November 2023 summarized the sentiment aptly: “Why is Everyone So Unhappy at Work Right Now?”

Some interpreted the tumult in the labour market as evidence that workers were simultaneously fed up and empowered to seek better working conditions.
But not all commentators have bought into this narrative.
If the portrayal of the Great Resignation — especially its purported personal causes — tainted work attitudes, then widespread discontent should be apparent.

Americans’ perception of work

The distance between the two represents the perception glitch.
That’s a 30-point perception glitch.
Thirty-two per cent of workers describe their own work as highly stressful, but 69 per cent believe that most Americans are in highly stressful jobs.
Underpaid: When you think about the pay you get for your work, do you feel you are underpaid, paid about right, or overpaid?
That’s a 39-point perception glitch.

‘Everything is terrible but I’m fine’

They could also reflect a cognitive bias in which we pay attention to negative information about others, revealing our tendency toward individual optimism but social pessimism.
My research with Paul Glavin, a sociologist at McMaster University, has started to measure the consequences of the “unhappy worker” narrative.
And yet, after years of negative rhetoric, a mindset shift towards believing work isn’t a necessary evil couldn’t hurt.

Scott Schieman receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Red Arrows: narcissism, immorality and lack of empathy are behind the dark psychology that can poison elites

Retrieved on:

Mardi, novembre 7, 2023

This revelation was the outcome of investigations into complaints of bad behaviour in this elite organisation.

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This revelation was the outcome of investigations into complaints of bad behaviour in this elite organisation.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton said that “behaviour that would be classed as unacceptable was widespread and normalised on the squadron”.
But just because the Red Arrows display discipline and professionalism doesn’t mean all individual members of the team will have those same characteristics.

Lack of self-doubt

In their entrenched macho culture, women in the Red Arrows squadron were viewed as “property”.
Elites are, by definition, highly selected both in terms of skills and psychological characteristics.
In a military setting, such traits include mental toughness, which can also come with a certain emotional coldness.
As I’ve shown in a recent book, emotional displays and expressions of self-doubt are likely to be highly discouraged among elites.

Narcissism

There may be a genetic component to narcissism, but narcissism can develop within an individual over time – and within a culture.
Narcissists are more likely to switch partners because new partners are always better at giving attention and complimenting them than existing partners.
This was no doubt partly down to opportunity and the undoubted glamour of the role, but perhaps also attributable to this narcissistic need.

Elites trust only those who know the score and who have passed the same rigorous selection tests that they have.
They therefore become harder to influence from the outside, where behaviour may be perceived more objectively.

Moral confusion

This, of course, creates a sense of entitlement and privilege, which can further stoke egos of narcissistic people and affect moral decisions.
The belief that you deserve special treatment and are exempted from certain moral obligations can lead to a skewed perspective on right and wrong.
Their insularity means that they are often surrounded by like-minded people who share similar values and perspectives and encourage this.
These social circles can influence their moral compass by reinforcing certain beliefs and behaviour, without the necessary critique.

Geoff Beattie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Junk fees and drip pricing: the underhanded tactics we hate yet still fall for

Retrieved on:

Mercredi, août 23, 2023

Amos, Government, Pleasure, Review, Pain, Len Bias, Advertising, Union, Bias, Ted, Cognitive bias, StubHub, Loss aversion, Time, Economics, Sales, Airline, Online shopping, Marketing

Then it turns out there is a service fee.

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Then it turns out there is a service fee.
By the time you pay the final price, it is no longer the fantastic offer you thought.
Drip pricing – a type of “junk fee” – is notorious in event and travel ticketing, and is creeping into other areas, such as movie tickets.

Present bias preference: why starting over feels too costly

Resistance to the idea of starting the search all over again is not simply a matter of laziness or indecision.
Drip pricing exploits this cognitive bias by getting you to make a decision and commit to the transaction process.
When you’re far into a complicated booking process and extra prices get added, starting all over again feels like a burden.
Read more:
Why telling people they could get sick in the future won't persuade them to be healthy now

Loss aversion: buying more expensive tickets

Drip pricing doesn’t just capitalise on our desire for immediate rewards; it also plays on our innate fear of losing out.
This second psychological phenomenon that drip pricing exploits is known as loss aversion – that we feel more pain from losing something than pleasure from gaining the same thing.
The concept of loss aversion was first outlined by economists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in a 1979 paper that is the third most-cited article in economics.
Read more:
Explainer: what is loss aversion and is it real?

Do consumers need protection?

Empirical evidence supports the above theoretical predictions about the impact of drop pricing on consumers.
A 2020 study quantified how much consumers dislike the lack of transparency in drip pricing (based on tracking the reactions of 225 undergraduates using fictional airline and hotel-booking websites).
The authors liken the practice to the “taximeter effect” – the discomfort consumers feel watching costs accumulate.
Many countries are taking steps to protect consumers from drip pricing.

Why are we paying so much for alcohol-free drinks that aren't taxed?

Retrieved on:

Mardi, juin 20, 2023

The premise is that abstaining from booze and hangovers for a month frees up money to donate.

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The premise is that abstaining from booze and hangovers for a month frees up money to donate.
But with prices in the booming alcohol-free drinks category often rivalling those of regular tipples, participants this year might find they have less spare cash than they anticipate.

Lured into paying more

The classic is a price tag with $99 struck out and $79 written in.
Whether it’s accurate or not, the $99 reference point shapes our perception of value and price.
This so-called “price anchoring”, is just one example of the broader anchoring cognitive bias described by psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman.

Where we are most susceptible

But it also works on websites of the national liquor outlets where special zero-alcohol categories have been established beside the traditional beer, wine and spirits listings.
It doesn’t take much browsing to confirm that prices are similar.
The exact percentage is difficult to calculate, but the alcohol-related tax on a bottle of full-strength beer can exceed 30%.
So, in a sense, they are pocketing a hefty bonus that well-anchored customers forget is not being passed on to the government.

Supermarkets and nurturing the next generation

Seemingly at odds with price anchoring is the appearance of non-alcoholic versions of some famous brands in supermarkets.
An incentive for names like Heineken, Coopers and Gordon’s to be in supermarkets is visibility in a family-friendly environment.

Is there a way to overcome the illusion?

Besides awareness, you can reduce the effect by curating your exposure to price information.
If you need non-alcoholic drinks for home or an event, visit the supermarket before the bottle shop.
Ask for your soda water in a fancy glass with lots of ice and slices of lemon or lime.

The Big Picture - Hold Rating Means Avoiding a Buy Rather Than Being Neutral

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Jeudi, juin 8, 2023

Trust, Bias, Research, Prevalence, Data, Cognitive bias, Collection, The Wall Street Journal, Cryptocurrency

NEW YORK, June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stock analyst ratings play a significant role in shaping investment decisions. However, a new analysis utilizing the AnaChart database, conflated with insights from academia, reveals an intriguing trend often overlooked by investors. The hold rating, commonly seen as a neutral stance, is frequently utilized by analysts to disassociate themselves from a stock that indicates a negative sentiment without severing ties with the company.

Key Points:

The AnaChart database reveals that analysts issue hold ratings far more frequently compared to sell ratings.
The data indicates 188,329 instances of maintaining a hold rating, vastly outnumbering the 28,490 occurrences of sticking with a sell rating.
Moreover, when analysts decide to downgrade a stock, they often opt for a hold rating rather than a sell.
Analysts frequently lean towards hold ratings due to various pressures, which can subtly shift the apparent meaning of this rating.

Introducing Unifai M&A Insights - the Industry's First Cultural and Team Integration Software Built for M&A

Retrieved on:

Jeudi, juin 1, 2023

Communication, Software as a service, Association for Corporate Growth, Len Bias, Intelligence, Organization, Feedback, Cognitive bias, Bias, Mobile phone, Management, Telecommunications, Sales, Risk management

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., June 1, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Unifai®, a leading enterprise SaaS company, is proud to announce at the Association for Corporate Growth conference, M&A West 2023, the launch of Unifai M&A Insights, the industry's first software platform designed for managing cultural and team integrations. This lightweight, yet powerful solution empowers organizations to streamline their M&A integration process, accelerate productivity, dramatically improve M&A execution, and avoid costly M&A integration mistakes.

Key Points:

This lightweight, yet powerful solution empowers organizations to streamline their M&A integration process, accelerate productivity, dramatically improve M&A execution, and avoid costly M&A integration mistakes.
By addressing the root causes of M&A failure, such as information asymmetry and cognitive bias, Unifai M&A Insights ensures organizations achieve a seamless transition through the M&A integration process.
Key features of Unifai M&A Insights include:
Expert-Designed Pulse Surveys: M&A Insights enables continuous feedback loops from all levels of the organization as part of the M&A integration process.
Unifai M&A Insights is expected to be released in the summer of 2023.

‘Whose side are you on mate?’ How no one is free from bias – including referees

Retrieved on:

Samedi, mai 27, 2023

Well, Cognitive bias, Sport, Pressure, New Zealand Warriors, Human, NRL, Bias, Decision-making, Bundesliga, Research, Time, COVID, Gymnastics, Liquor, Cassette tape, Video game, Pharmaceutical industry

Sports fans often think the ref is biased against their team – penalising them for the very same actions the other side is getting away with.

Key Points:

Sports fans often think the ref is biased against their team – penalising them for the very same actions the other side is getting away with.
The honest answer is probably not – despite most professional sporting bodies regularly rejecting claims of bias.
In fact, referee bias has been reported in pretty much every aspect of most sports, including the use of yellow cards, red cards and penalty kicks.

Confirmation bias is real

This tendency – known as confirmation bias – has its uses.
It lets us make quick decisions when we don’t have the time to consider all the evidence.
However, confirmation bias can also be problematic.
Given exactly the same prints, but primed to look for evidence that the fingerprints didn’t match, their judgement changed.

Expectations influence outcomes

Even if not consciously biased, they will have expectations about how players and teams will perform, and there is evidence that this influences their judgements.
We suspect those expectations are one reason dominant teams and players tend to have close calls go their way.
Referees expect to see some players pull off moves that bring them close to infringing but which don’t cross that line.

Refs aren’t superhuman

And if referees do have these kinds of expectations, it would be very difficult for them to factor these out of their decision making.
The fingerprint experts didn’t intend to tailor their judgements to suit the views they’d been primed to hold.
Further, they made their judgements under calm laboratory conditions, with the evidence in front of them and plenty of time and equipment to examine and consider it.
Referees would need to be superhuman to be immune to these dangers.

Unifai Manager Onboarding Insights - the Industry's First Onboarding Software Platform Built for Managers

Retrieved on:

Mercredi, mai 10, 2023

Organization, Len Bias, Software as a service, Communication, Feedback, Bias, Cognitive bias, Risk, Head, Video game, Management

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., May 9, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Unifai®, a leading enterprise SaaS company, is proud to announce the launch of Manager Onboarding Insights, the industry's first onboarding software platform designed specifically for managers. This lightweight, yet powerful solution empowers organizations to streamline their manager onboarding process, accelerate productivity, dramatically improve retention rates, and avoid costly onboarding mistakes.

Key Points:

Unifai®, a leading enterprise SaaS company, is proud to announce the launch of Manager Onboarding Insights, the industry's first onboarding software platform designed specifically for managers.
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., May 9, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Unifai®, a leading enterprise SaaS company, is proud to announce the launch of Manager Onboarding Insights, the industry's first onboarding software platform designed specifically for managers.
By addressing the root causes of manager onboarding failure, such as information asymmetry and cognitive bias, Unifai Manager Onboarding Insights ensures managers experience a smooth transition into new roles.
For more information on Unifai Manager Onboarding Insights, visit https://unifai.us or contact [email protected] .

Tenable Makes Generative AI Security Tools Available to the Research Community

Retrieved on:

Jeudi, avril 27, 2023

Thought, GitHub, ChatGPT, RSA, Research, Cognitive bias, Conference, Tenable, Security, Medical device

COLUMBIA, Md., April 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RSA Conference 2023 -- Tenable® , the Exposure Management company, today published a new report outlining the use of generative AI to build new security research tools.

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COLUMBIA, Md., April 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RSA Conference 2023 -- Tenable® , the Exposure Management company, today published a new report outlining the use of generative AI to build new security research tools.
The report, titled “ How Generative AI is Changing Security Research ,” highlights four new tools developed by the Tenable Research team that create efficiencies in processes such as reverse engineering, code debugging, web app security and visibility into cloud-based tools.
The tools demonstrate ongoing experimentation by Tenable Research with generative AI applications like ChatGPT, and have been made available publicly to the security research community through a GitHub repository .
The report also examines the concept of cognitive bias as a starting point for thinking about how generative AI can and should be approached by the research community.

AI can process more information than humans – so will it stop us repeating our mistakes?

Retrieved on:

Mercredi, avril 26, 2023

As many people have also pointed out, the only thing we learn from history is that we rarely learn anything from history.

Key Points:

As many people have also pointed out, the only thing we learn from history is that we rarely learn anything from history.
People engage in land wars in Asia over and over.
One issue is forgetfulness and “myopia”: we do not see how past events are relevant to current ones, overlooking the unfolding pattern.
That means that the next time a similar situation comes around, we do not see the similarity – and repeat the mistake.

The annoying power of technology

Tickets here: 20% off with code CONVERSATION23 Storing information is useful when it can be retrieved well.
But remembering is not the same thing as retrieving a file from a known location or date.
An artificial intelligence (AI) also needs to be able to spontaneously bring similarities to our mind – often unwelcome similarities.
That means it will warn us about things we do not care about, possibly in an annoying way.
We make technology more complex until it becomes too annoying or unsafe to use.
This ultimately makes the technology less reliable than it could be.

Mistakes will be made

The more complex it is, the more fantastic the mistakes can be.
This is also a profound reason to worry about AI guiding decision-making: they make new kinds of mistakes.
We humans know human mistakes, meaning we can watch out for them.
They mimic the biases and repeat the mistakes from the human world, even when the people involved explicitly try to avoid them.
Our aim should be to survive and learn from our mistakes, not prevent them from ever happening.