| Cognitive Bias (Error) | Description | Example |
|---|
| Arbitrary inference | Drawing a negative conclusion when there is little or no evidence to support it | When Joan calls Jim to cancel their lunch date because she has an important meeting at work, Jim concludes that she is probably going out to lunch with another man. |
| Selective abstraction | Focusing on a single negative detail taken out of context and ignoring the more important aspects of the situation | During Kaori’s annual review, her manager praises her job performance but notes that she could be a little more confident when she deals with customers over the phone. Kaori leaves her manager’s office thinking that he is on the verge of firing her because of her poor telephone skills. |
| Overgeneralization | Drawing a sweeping, global conclusion based on an isolated incident and applying that conclusion to other unrelated areas of life | Tony spills coffee on his final exam. He apologizes to his instructor but can’t stop thinking about the incident. He concludes that he is a klutz who will never be able to succeed in a professional career. |
| Magnification and minimization | Grossly overestimating the impact of negative events and grossly underestimating the impact of positive events so that small, bad events are magnified, but good, large events are minimized | One week after Emily aces all her midterms, she worries about flunking out of college when she gets a B on an in-class quiz. |
| Personalization | Taking responsibility, blaming oneself, or applying external events to oneself when there is no basis or evidence for making the connection | Andrei becomes extremely upset when his instructor warns the class about plagiarism. He thinks the instructor’s warning was aimed at him, and he concludes that the instructor suspects him of plagiarizing parts of his term paper. |
| Source: Information from Beck & others (1979). |