The Limits of the Knower — Bias and Cognition

If communities shape knowledge from the outside, the mind shapes it from the inside. Human cognition is remarkably capable but also systematically prone to error. This lesson examines the cognitive limits every knower works within and what can be done about them.

The mind takes shortcuts

The brain constantly uses heuristics, mental shortcuts that let us judge and decide quickly without exhaustive analysis. These shortcuts are usually useful, but they produce predictable errors called cognitive biases. The availability heuristic makes events that are easy to recall, such as dramatic disasters, seem more common than they are. Anchoring lets an initial number or idea unduly influence later judgments. The framing effect shows that the same information described in different words can lead to d