Authority Bias
We attribute greater accuracy and correctness to the opinion of an authority figure.
Authority bias is the tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure (unrelated to its content) and be more influenced by that opinion. This bias can be used positively (trusting a doctor about medical decisions) or manipulated negatively (celebrities endorsing medical products outside their expertise). Stanley Milgram's famous obedience experiments demonstrated how far authority bias can extend.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Marketing Doctor Endorsements Pharmaceuticals historically used 'most doctors recommend' messaging to exploit authority bias.
- Everyday life Milgram Experiment Participants administered apparently dangerous electric shocks to strangers because an authority figure in a lab coat instructed them to.
Someone has already built a business on this.
Biases are not only private errors. They are design targets — patterns deliberately engineered into interfaces because they reliably work.
- E-commerce Fake Expert Badges Products display fabricated 'expert-recommended' badges or certifications to exploit authority bias without any genuine endorsement.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
An employee volunteers for a difficult overtime project because their direct supervisor, whom they admire, said it would be 'good for their career'.
A person agrees with a controversial political opinion shared by a famous scientist on social media, even though it's outside the scientist's field of expertise.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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