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Debias Spot your own cognitive biases · Android · Free

All 188 cognitive biases.

Grouped by the four problems your brain is actually solving. Each one has a definition, real examples, the interfaces built to exploit it, and scenarios to test whether you can spot it.

Too much information 46 biases

The brain filters aggressively. What gets through is what is recent, odd, or already believed — not what matters.

Primed in memory

Attentional Bias Availability Heuristic Base Rate Fallacy Context Effect Cue-Dependent Forgetting Empathy Gap Frequency Illusion (Baader-Meinhof) Illusory Truth Effect Mere Exposure Effect Mood-Congruent Memory Bias Omission Bias

Bizarre and striking things

Bizarreness Effect Humor Effect Negativity Bias Picture Superiority Effect Self-Relevance Effect Von Restorff Effect

Noticing change

Anchoring Effect Conservatism Bias Contrast Effect Distinction Bias Focusing Effect Framing Effect Money Illusion Weber-Fechner Law

Confirming existing beliefs

Backfire Effect Choice-Supportive Bias Confirmation Bias Congruence Bias Continued Influence Effect Information Bias Observer-Expectancy Effect Ostrich Effect Post-Purchase Rationalization Selective Perception Semmelweis Reflex Subjective Validation

Noticing flaws in others

Actor-Observer Bias Bias Blind Spot Defensive Attribution Forer Effect (Barnum Effect) Fundamental Attribution Error Illusion of Superiority Naïve Cynicism Naïve Realism Trait Ascription Bias
Not enough meaning 67 biases

Gaps get filled with story. Patterns are found in noise, and confidence arrives long before the evidence does.

Finding patterns in sparse data

Anecdotal Fallacy Anthropomorphism Appeal to Probability Argument from Fallacy Clustering Illusion Confabulation Gambler's Fallacy Hot-Hand Fallacy Illusion of Validity Illusory Correlation Insensitivity to Sample Size Masked-Man Fallacy Murphy's Law Bias Neglect of Probability Pareidolia Recency Illusion

Filling gaps from stereotypes

Authority Bias Automation Bias Bandwagon Effect Essentialism Functional Fixedness Group Attribution Error Just-World Hypothesis Moral Credential Effect Placebo Effect Social Comparison Bias Social Desirability Bias Stereotyping Ultimate Attribution Error

Imagining the familiar as better

Cheerleader Effect Cross-Race Effect Halo Effect In-Group Favoritism Not Invented Here Syndrome Outgroup Homogeneity Bias Positivity Effect Reactive Devaluation Well-Traveled Road Effect

Simplifying probabilities

Denomination Effect Mental Accounting Normalcy Bias Scope Insensitivity Subadditivity Effect Survivorship Bias Zero-Risk Bias Zero-Sum Bias

Thinking we know what others think

Curse of Knowledge Extrinsic Incentive Bias Illusion of Asymmetric Insight Illusion of External Agency Illusion of Transparency Self-Serving Bias Spotlight Effect

Projecting our current mindset

Declinism Hindsight Bias Impact Bias Moral Luck Optimism Bias Outcome Bias Pessimism Bias Planning Fallacy Pro-Innovation Bias Projection Bias Restraint Bias Rosy Retrospection Telescoping Effect Time-Saving Bias
The need to act fast 45 biases

Decisions cannot wait for certainty, so the brain trades accuracy for speed and rarely says the trade was made.

Confidence in our own ability

Dunning-Kruger Effect Egocentric Bias False Consensus Effect Hard-Easy Effect Illusion of Control Illusory Superiority Lake Wobegon Effect Overconfidence Effect The Magical Number Seven Third-Person Effect Wishful Thinking

Focusing on the immediate

Affect Heuristic Appeal to Novelty Availability Cascade Hyperbolic Discounting Identifiable Victim Effect Introspection Illusion Representativeness Heuristic

Biased toward action

Ben Franklin Effect Effort Justification Endowment Effect Escalation of Commitment Generation Effect IKEA Effect Loss Aversion Processing Difficulty Effect Reverse Psychology Effect Sunk Cost Fallacy Unit Bias

Avoiding irreversible decisions

Ambiguity Effect Disposition Effect Pseudocertainty Effect Reactance Risk Compensation (Peltzman Effect) Status Quo Bias System Justification

Favouring simple options

Belief Bias Bike-Shedding Effect Conjunction Fallacy Decoy Effect Delmore Effect Disambiguation Effect Less-Is-Better Effect Occam's Razor Bias Rhyme as Reason Effect
What should be remembered 30 biases

Memory edits to save space. Details are dropped, gist is kept, and the revised version feels like the original.

Editing and reinforcing memories

Cryptomnesia False Memory Leveling and Sharpening Misattribution of Memory Suggestibility Testing Effect

Discarding specifics for generalities

Fading Affect Bias Implicit Association Implicit Stereotypes List-Length Effect Prejudice Stereotypical Bias Suffix Effect

Reducing events to key elements

Google Effect Memory Inhibition Misinformation Effect Modality Effect Part-List Cueing Effect Serial Position Effect Serial Recall Effect Source Confusion

Storing memories by experience

Absent-Mindedness Consistency Bias Duration Neglect Levels-of-Processing Effect Next-in-Line Effect Peak-End Rule Spacing Effect Tip of the Tongue Verbatim Effect

Reading the list is the easy part.

Debias turns all 188 into 18,869 scenarios, so you practise catching them instead of just recognising the names.

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The four-problem grouping follows the Cognitive Bias Codex arrangement by Buster Benson, designed by John Manoogian III, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. Definitions, examples and scenarios here are written for Debias.