The battle against cognitive bias

Humans often like taking shortcuts and mental shortcuts,known as heuristics, to help us make quick decisions when needed. Heuristics are basically rules of thumb or simplifying strategies for decision making. Although such short cuts are helpful in many ways especially in coping with thecomplex environment surrounding out decisions, they can also be the cause of cognitive biases. In a way, cognitive biases are systematic errors in our thinking that can affect our judgements and decision making. It should be noted that cognitive bias is not the same as being prejudicial or unwilling to have an open mind. Cognitive biases are complex psychological phenomena and occur because of the limitations on our ability to properly deal with and process all the information that is available.