Overcoming Bias

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Are any Human Cognitive Biases Genetically Universal?

www.overcomingbias.com

Are any Human Cognitive Biases Genetically Universal?

Bruce Britton
May 29, 2007
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Are any Human Cognitive Biases Genetically Universal?

www.overcomingbias.com

Genetically universal human traits are such things as the eye, appendix, having two legs and two arms and a head, etc. There are no exceptions to universal traits (embryological accidents don’t count).

Of 67 Cognitive Biases, 62 are not claimed  to be universal, based on published evidence for them that  ‘many’ or ‘most’ subjects show a ‘tendency’ ‘toward’ them ‘often’ to a ‘statistically significant’ degree, etc.

Of the 5 exceptions, the Anthropic Bias and the Adaptive Bias are defined as universal, so empirical evidence for universality is superfluous.  The Contrast Effect is perceptual (e.g., a hefted weight is perceived as heavier when contrasted with a lighter weight, lighter when contrasted with a heavier weight) and ‘ubiquity ‘ is claimed. The other two are memory limitations — in the Primacy and Recency Effects, items at the beginning and end of a long list are remembered better.

However, the other biases could still be genetically ‘universal’  if present in all persons without special training (as children or uneducated adults) or in all persons in genetically isolated communities.

Failing evidence of universality, a cognitive bias could  be shown to be  genetic if it runs in families (one-egg twins more similar in a particular bias than two-egg twins, etc.).

Is there any other evidence for universality of Cognitive Biases?

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Are any Human Cognitive Biases Genetically Universal?

www.overcomingbias.com
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