Sources of Biases and Errors in Attribution - Cognitive Bias

Counter factual thinkings are biases which are not based on objective facts or reasons, but based on imagination and hypothetical views.

• Cognitive bias occurs due to a lack of information or mental shortcuts in thinking.
• Biases arise from information-processing limits, not always from motives.
• Storm’s (1973) study showed that people make different attributions based on the information or viewpoint available to them.
• When judgments are not based on facts, they become counterfactual (imaginary or hypothetical thinking).
• Because of cognitive bias, different people interpret the same situation differently.