Ch4 Cognitive Biases Test Bank Docx

Test Bank, Chapter 4

Quiz questions set 1. True or False?

1. A cognitive bias is psychological barrier to critical thinking.
2. A cognitive bias is philosophical barrier to critical thinking.
3. ^Intellectual blindness is one of the cognitive biases identified in the book.
4. A good critical thinker is someone who has eliminated all cognitive biases.
5. According to the text, Socrates had no cognitive biases.
6. ^Cognitive biases can all be completely eliminated if one tries.
7. Belief bias is one of the cognitive biases.
8. Confirmation bias is the same as the availability bias.
9. ^According to the text, everyone has cognitive biases.
10. Cognitive biases can be counteracted but are not entirely eliminable.
11. The text argues that cognitive biases prove that reason cannot be trusted.
12. The science of cognitive biases began in ancient Greece.
13. Socrates is the founder of the modern science of cognitive biases.
14. ^Confirmation bias causes people to look harder for confirming than for disconfirming evidence.
15. Belief bias causes people to judge the logical strength of an argument simply on the basis of whether they agree or do not agree with the conclusion.
16. ^The text compares cognitive biases to deadheads floating a few feet below the surface of a lake.
17. An affect is a positive or negative feeling toward something.
18. The negativity bias causes people to complain and be bitter.
19. Selective attention bias works like a filter in your mind.
20. ^Bandwagon bias is also called “conformism bias.”
21. The bandwagon bias is a tendency to bum rides off friends.
22. Ethnocentrism bias has caused a great deal of human suffering over the centuries.
23. Stereotyping is closely related to ethnocentrism bias.
24. ^A stereotype acts like a filter in our minds, restricting our vision.
25. According to the text, everyone is egocentric to some degree.
26. The availability bias causes us to not be available when our friends need us.
27. Substitution bias causes us to substitute an easier question for a harder one when answering a hard question.
28. ^Anchoring bias affects sailors and people at sea.
29. Tulipomania was a hysteria that occurred in Holland in the seventeenth century.
30. It is not possible that there exists both confirming and disconfirming evidence for a single view or belief.
31. In many cases, there exists both confirming and disconfirming evidence for a belief.
32. Self-interest bias can cause us to believe something solely because acceptance of the view benefits us, without regard to the truth of the matter or the evidence.
33. The mere fact that a view benefits you is not proof the view is true.
34. Strong expectations can cause us to see things that are not really there.
35. ^One problem with being too resistant to criticism is that you pass up opportunities for self-improvement.
36. One problem with always blaming others for your shortcomings is that it may cause you to overlook the real source of the problem.

Quiz questions set 2. Multiple choice. Choose the best answer. (Correct answers are marked with an asterisk.)

1. ^Confirmation bias is…
2. the tendency to judge an argument on the basis of whether we already agree with its conclusion, rather than on the evidence.
3. the tendency to decide an issue on the basis of emotions.
4. the tendency to look harder for evidence that supports our view than for evidence that counts against our view.
5. the tendency to notice evidence that supports our view while not even noticing evidence that goes against it.
6. The availability bias is…
7. the tendency to form a conclusion on the basis of all the evidence that exists on an issue.
8. the tendency to form a conclusion on the basis of only the evidence easily at hand, rather than on the basis of all the evidence.
9. the tendency to be available to only those from one point of view.
10. the tendency to overlook easily available evidence.
11. The belief bias is…
12. the tendency to believe only what you believe.
13. the tendency to rate the strength of an argument on the basis of whether you already agree with the conclusion.
14. the tendency to look at evidence only for what you already believe.
15. the tendency to believe on the basis of no evidence at all.
16. The bandwagon bias is...
17. getting legislation passed by forming a supermajority.
18. the tendency to adopt beliefs because everyone around you holds them.
19. convincing people to agree with you by making your view look popular.
20. the tendency to favor your own group over other groups.
21. Ethnocentrism is…
22. an unjustified belief in the superiority of one’s own culture or ethnic group.
23. the belief that one’s own ethnic group forms the center of the universe.
24. the tendency to discriminate against people who are different than you.
25. the belief that you are superior to all other kinds of people.
26. ^The negativity bias is the tendency to…
27. be against everything you here.
28. attach more weight to negative evidence than to positive evidence.
29. say negative things about other people.
30. attach more weight to positive things than to negative things.
31. attach more weight to negative events than to positive events.