Cognitive Debiasing
Updated 2026-08-15
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Cognitive debiasing is the systematic effort to identify and reduce the influence of cognitive biases on judgment and decision making. The core proposition is that bias is the default output of fast intuitive processing rather than a defect of the uninformed, so knowing about a bias does not remove it and active countermeasures are required. The key qualification is that debiasing requires external structure such as checklists, designated dissent or blind evaluation, since a person attempting to correct their own bias from the inside is relying on the same process that produced it.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Name The Bias: list the biases most likely to affect this type of decision. - Use A Checklist: run the decision through an explicit filter rather than relying on vigilance. - Add An Outside View: bring in a blind review or a designated critic to break the internal loop.
Anchor fast decisions
Biases are produced by the same fast processes that make judgment efficient, so they operate before deliberate correction can engage. Awareness alone does not interrupt them, because the intuitive conclusion arrives already formed. External structure works because it changes the conditions under which the judgment is made, rather than asking the same process to audit itself.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debiasingverified
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