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Cognitive Bias Bootcamp: The G.I. Joe Fallacy [1]

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Date: 2023-05-08

The other half is lasers, right? Lots and lots of lasers! And maybe Sgt. Slaughter putting Destro in a headlock.

Howdy folks! Time for another Bootcamp installment to ease that craving for knowledge! And, as the G.I. Joe team knows, knowing is half the battle!

Or is it…?

Today let’s look at...The G.I. Joe Fallacy!

This one is relatively new, as such things go. And those who’ve partaken of my past Bootcamp installments know that I often admonish readers to be aware of cognitive biases in order to avoid them.

That’s easy to say; less easy to do. Hence the fallacy.

This phenomenon was first officially described in 2014 (by Santos & Gentler), so as I noted it is a relative newcomer to the cognitive bias scene (of course, it’s always existed; it just wasn’t officially researched and described until then). And although the term “fallacy” appears in its name, it’s not actually a logical fallacy; it’s a cognitive bias, because its related to how our brains work and process information.

The core of this one is that, even when we know about a cognitive bias, we may still fall prey to it and simply knowing about it isn’t sufficient to allow us to circumvent them.

Here are some examples:

First of all, and easiest to recognize, is optical illusions. You may KNOW that those squiggles on the page or screen aren’t really moving, but your brain doesn’t care. Or that the top line is really longer than the bottom line (and you even measured them!), to your brain they still look the same length.

But there are others. The old “This is $19.99! A great buy! (or even better, “Five easy payments of just $19.99!”) and look! Gas is $3.199 per gallon!” thing can still work on us even when we know that yeah, it’s for all practical purposes $20, but our brain perceives it as much less. And that tenth of a penny thing for gas? Yeah don’t get me started.

That doesn’t mean knowing isn’t useful. But it means that sometimes it takes a conscious mental effort and action to overcome those biases (and even then, you may not be able to stop your brain from seeing those moving squiggles). Nor does it mean we are always fated to fall for every cognitive bias our brains are subject to. Unfortunately, our brains are gonna do what our brains are gonna do sometimes. Brains gonna brain.

So now you know. And knowing is...uh...half the battle? Maybe?

And if you’ve enjoyed reading this, consider partaking of some of my other past entries in my Bootcamp series, wherein I explain a logical fallacy, cognitive bias, or expound upon some other aspect of critical thinking! See below for links!

Prior Bootcamp Installments

Logical Fallacies Bootcamp:

The Strawman

The Slippery Slope

Begging the Question

Poisoning the Well

No True Scotsman!

Ad Hominem

False Dilemma

Non Sequitur

Red Herring

Gamblers Fallacy

Bandwagon Fallacy

Appeal to Fear

The Fallacy Fallacy

Appeal to Personal Incredulity

Appeal to Authority

Special Pleading

Texas Sharpshooter

Post Hoc

Appeal to Nature

Furtive Fallacy

Alphabet Soup

Middle Ground

Relative Privation

Cognitive Bias Bootcamp:

Bystander Effect

Curse of Knowledge

Barnum Effect

Declinism

In-Group Bias

Hindsight Bias

Survivor Bias

Rhyme-as-Reason Effect

Apophenia (& Paradoleia)

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Confirmation Bias

Anchoring Bias

Inattentional Blindness

The Frequency Illusion (AKA the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon)

Critical Thinking Bootcamp:

Sea Lioning

Occam’s Razor

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