Cognitive biases

Given all the explanation above, some people still feel more comfortable with the first option. That’s natural, because of a cognitive bias called loss aversion. We’ve evolved to assign more weight to losing than gaining, which was a good strategy for when our ancestors were living in jungles and caves among lions and other dangerous animals, but not so in the modern world. The ratio depends on personal preferences and cultures, but it’s usually by a factor of about 2.5. (Losing is 2.5 times heavier for us than gaining.) That’s why the 2.0 ratio of the previous example is not enough to urge most people’s subconscious to accept the second option.

Loss aversion is innate in us, and there may not be much we can do about it, but we can learn about these cognitive biases and control them consciously instead of leaving the decisions to our gut feelings. Confirmation bias, sunk cost fallacy, effort justification, halo effect, illusion of control, planning fallacy, base rate fallacy, zero risk bias, and stereotyping are just a few examples of the many biases and fallacies that impact us in projects. If you’re interested, you can check the list of cognitive biases on Wikipedia and read more about them there.