Cognitive bias refers to the phenomenon that people often distort the perception results due to their own reasons or situations when they perceive themselves, others or the external environment. Typical manifestations include significant deviation and vivid deviation. Stereotype and halo effect, which are common in social cognition, are all some form of perceptual deviation. It is caused by the selective characteristics of personal perception.
How to explain cognitive bias is a very difficult problem. Economists believe that the brain usually uses simple programs to deal with complex environments, so deviation is inevitable. On the other hand, social psychologists believe that cognitive bias is related to self-centered thinking tendency to maintain positive self-image, self-esteem or good self-feeling. However, evolutionary psychologists hassell Dunn and Leto believe that some explanations are unsatisfactory and all the answers are superficial. They put forward the theory of error management, thinking that the usual decision-making is not a question of whether to make mistakes, but a question of what kind of mistakes to make. In short, the theory of error management holds that human decision-making in uncertain situations usually faces the risk of making mistakes. These errors can be divided into two categories: false positives and false negatives.