Cognitive Biases¶
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from rational judgment that occur during information processing. In the context of misinformation and disinformation, biases shape how individuals evaluate, believe, and spread competing information narratives. Key biases include:
- Optimism bias: Tendency to underestimate personal vulnerability and overweight favorable information, particularly in uncertain or crisis situations.
- Confirmation bias: Preference for information that confirms pre-existing beliefs; individuals more readily incorporate favorable information than disconfirming evidence.
- False consensus effect: Overestimation of the extent to which one's beliefs are widely shared in the population.
- Naive realism: Belief that one's perception of reality is objective and factual, independent of personal perspective.
- Attentional bias: Disproportionate focus on content aligned with prior beliefs due to selective attention.
- Positive illusions: Reliance on unrealistically positive self-perceptions to cope with threat.
In networked environments, these biases are not isolated individual phenomena—they interact with social dynamics. Social feedback reinforces biased judgments through repeated exposure (complex contagion), selective sharing, and conformity pressures (spiral of silence). Together, cognitive biases and network structure co-determine whether true or false information dominates at equilibrium.
Key papers¶
- Modeling Duelling Contagions of True and False Information in the Face of Inherent — Models how cognitive biases amplify competing information diffusion; validates interventions based on bias-aware seeding.