Analysing your IQ
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AKA: "Gut Feeling Bias"
Letting your current emotional state influence judgments that should be based on facts.
Your brain has bugs. Affect Heuristic is one of them. Understanding this error pattern helps you catch it before it costs you.
You judge risks as lower for things you like (driving, your stocks) and higher for things you fear (nuclear power, flying).
Affect Heuristic isn't just an abstract concept—it affects real decisions about money, relationships, career, and health. The cost of ignoring it compounds over time.
This error is driven by Emotions provide quick summary evaluations that substitute for careful analysis..
Evolution optimized for speed and safety, not truth. Affect Heuristic is a byproduct of heuristics that once had adaptive value.
In investing: Affect Heuristic leads to holding losing positions too long or selling winners too early.
In relationships: This bias causes people to interpret ambiguous signals in ways that confirm existing beliefs about partners.
In work: Affect Heuristic makes it harder to update strategies when market conditions change.
In health: People ignore symptoms that contradict their self-image as "healthy" or "young."
The scientific literature on Affect Heuristic spans behavioral economics, cognitive psychology, and decision science. The finding is robust across cultures and contexts.
Separate emotional reaction from factual analysis. Ask: "What does the data say, independent of how I feel?"
Seek disconfirming evidence: Actively look for data that challenges your current belief.
Use decision journals: Write down predictions before outcomes are known, then review accuracy.
Consult diverse perspectives: People with different backgrounds spot different biases.
Implement decision rules: Pre-commit to criteria before emotionally charged situations arise.
Time-box decisions: Revisit important conclusions after a cooling-off period.
Some brains are more susceptible to this than others. Test your Emotional Health to find out.
Letting your current emotional state influence judgments that should be based on facts.
The alternate name "Gut Feeling Bias" captures the intuitive essence of the bias. Affect Heuristic is the formal psychological term, while "Gut Feeling Bias" describes what it feels like in practice.
Separate emotional reaction from factual analysis. Ask: "What does the data say, independent of how I feel?"
The underlying mechanism is emotions provide quick summary evaluations that substitute for careful analysis.. Human brains evolved heuristics for speed and survival, not accuracy in modern contexts.
Yes. Intelligence doesn't provide immunity—sometimes it makes the bias worse because smart people are better at rationalizing. Awareness and structured decision processes are more protective than raw IQ.
You judge risks as lower for things you like (driving, your stocks) and higher for things you fear (nuclear power, flying).