The Biased Poem

Meaning of ‘The Biased Poem’

Today seems busy, overwhelming with choice (Over choice)

Sticking with norms does seems nice (Conformity/Decision Fatigue) 

What to do, what not to do, where I wanna go (Cognitive Dissonance) 

Success is assured for those; who hard work. (Illusory Correlation) 

Whatever may be fact, or be figure (The Ostrich Effect) 

Somewhere In my mind it was just near (Planning Fallacy ) 

I knew I could do it, if I do it now (Overconfidence Effect) 

Though as I look back success wasn’t around (Hindsight Bias)

Missing those old days when everything was fun (Rosy Retrospection) 

Choosing what comes first, when plans for future were none (Hyperbolic discounting) 

Chatting all day and games all time (Peak-end Rule) 

Things that I wish, would stay through time. (Status Quo Bias) 

Happiness was so high, I could have done it all (Affect Heuristic) 

But for the things that never happened wasn’t my fault (Self-serving Bias)

Memories are still there; as things today just drifts with time (Google Effect) 

Pop up, pop out are pleasures of tonight (Habit Loop)

Among Jupiter ascending and retrograding worlds (Barnum Effect) 

We do get, what we deserved (The Just-world Hypothesis) 

As Lies of today will become truth of tomorrow (Illusory Truth Effect) 

Sorrow of today will be left in morrow (Optimism Bias) 

If I could buy, the time gone bye (Bye-now Effect) 

Things would be easy, as easy as pie (Illusion of Control) 

Past of valour and present of nun (Declinism) 

Greatness is assured when resistance is none (Zero Risk Bias)

Resources

• Over choice has been associated with unhappiness (Schwartz, 2004), decision fatigue, going with  the default option, as well as choice deferral—avoiding making a decision altogether 

• The preference for things to remain the same, such as a tendency not to change behaviour unless the incentive to do so is strong, has been termed the “status quo bias” 

• The overconfidence effect is observed when people’s subjective confidence in their own ability is  greater than their objective (actual) performance  

• Habit loop 

“When I see (A) CUE, 

I will do (B) ROUTINE  

in order to get (C) REWARD.” 

• The illusion of control describes how we believe we have greater control over events than we  actually do. Even when something is a matter of random chance, we often feel like we’re able to  influence it in some way.

• The affect heuristic describes how we often rely on our emotions, rather than concrete information,  when making decisions. This allows us to reach a conclusion quickly and easily, but can also distort our  thinking and lead us to make suboptimal choices. 

• Rosy retrospection refers to our tendency to recall the past more fondly than the present, all else being  equal. It is a cognitive bias that runs parallel with the concept of nostalgia, though the latter does not  always directly imply a biased recollection. The phrase stems from the English idiom, “rose-tinted  glasses,” where people see things as better than they were. 

• Cognitive dissonance describes when we avoid having conflicting beliefs and attitudes because it makes  us feel uncomfortable. The clash is usually dealt with by rejecting, debunking, or avoiding new  information. 

• The bye-now effect describes a specific word-priming scenario where the reading of the word “bye”  causes us to think about its phonological twin, “buy”. When our frame of mind shifts to think of the verb  “buy”, it may be able to influence our behaviour. 

• The Google effect, also known as digital amnesia, is the tendency to forget information that is readily  available through search engines like Google. We do not commit this information to our memory because  we know that this information is easy to access online.

• The hindsight bias is our tendency to look back at an unpredictable event and think it was easily  predictable. It is also called the ‘knew-it-all-along’ effect. 

• Declinism is the tendency to see the past in an overly positive light and to view the present or future in an  overly negative light, leading us to believe that things are worse than they used to be. Declinism is often a  feeling harboured about the overall state of a country, society, or institution, with the view that it is in  decline or getting worse. 

• Hyperbolic discounting is our inclination to choose immediate rewards over rewards that come later in  the future, even when these immediate rewards are smaller. 

• The illusory truth effect, also known as the illusion of truth, describes how, when we hear the same false  information repeated again and again, we often come to believe it is true. Troublingly, this even happens  when people should know better—that is, when people initially know that the misinformation is false. 

• The Barnum effect, also commonly referred to as the Forer Effect, describes when individuals believe  that generic information, which could apply to anyone, applies specifically to themselves.

• The planning fallacy describes our tendency to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete  a task, as well as the costs and risks associated with that task—even if it contradicts our experiences. 

• Illusory correlation is when we see an association between two variables (events, actions, ideas, etc.)  when they aren’t actually associated/ happens when we mistakenly over-emphasize one outcome and  ignore the others 

• The peak-end rule is a psychological heuristic that changes the way we recall past events. We remember  a memory or judge an experience based on how they felt at the peak moments, as well as how they felt at  the end. 

• The just-world hypothesis refers to our belief that the world is fair, and consequently, that the moral  standings of our actions will determine our outcomes. This viewpoint causes us to believe that those who  do good will be rewarded, and those who exhibit negative behaviours will be punished. 

• The self-serving bias describes when we attribute positive events and successes to our own character or  actions, but blame negative results to external factors unrelated to our character. The self-serving bias is  a common cognitive bias that has fascinated researchers globally for decades.

• Zero risk bias relates to our preference for absolute certainty. We tend to opt for situations where we  can completely eliminate risk, seeking solace in the figure of 0%, over alternatives that may actually offer  greater risk reduction. 

• The ostrich effect, also known as the ostrich problem, is a cognitive bias that describes how people often  avoid negative information, including feedback that could help them monitor their goal progress. Instead  of dealing with the situation, we bury our heads in the sand, like ostriches. This avoidance can often make  things worse, incurring costs that we might not have had to pay if we had faced things head-on. 

• Optimism bias (or the optimistic bias) is a cognitive bias that causes someone to believe that they  themselves are less likely to experience a negative event 

• Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours to group norms, politics or being like minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions  with others