Cognitive Ease: What It Is (And How To Increase It)

Cognitive Ease: What It Is (And How To Increase It)

What is cognitive ease? What is it good for, and when does it hinder you? Cognitive ease is an internal measure of how easy or strained your cognitive load is. In a state of cognitive ease, you’re probably in a good mood, believe what you hear, trust your intuitions, feel the situation is familiar, are more creative, and are superficial in your thinking. We’ll cover the properties of cognitive ease and how to use the concept to get your point across and convince others of its truth.

2 Classic Conjunction Fallacy Examples, Explained

2 Classic Conjunction Fallacy Examples, Explained

What is the conjunction fallacy? How can you avoid it? Conjunction fallacy is the belief that the conjunction of two events happening is more probable than one happening. Often, extra details that create a coherent story make the events in that story seem more probable, even though the extra conditions needing to be met make the conjunction less probable. The best way to illustrate this is with a conjunction fallacy example. We’ll cover two examples of the conjunction fallacy and how to counter this bias.

Evolution of Human Intelligence: Language Changed Everything

Evolution of Human Intelligence: Language Changed Everything

What was the process of the evolution of human intelligence? How did the evolution of the human brain occur in tandem with the evolution of human intelligence? The evolution of human intelligence involved an increased brain size and the development of three skills: the creation of flexible language, communication about 3rd parties, and collective fictions. This evolution gave humans a leg-up in the animal world. We’ll cover the characteristics of the evolution of human intelligence and how that evolution shaped the modern world.

Home Birth Pros and Cons

Home Birth Pros and Cons

<1% of women in the US have a home birth. If you’re high risk (breech, twins, gestational diabetes), you’ll probably need a hospital birth, as it’ll be hard to find a midwife to attend a risky birth. But if you can have a home birth, should you have one? Learn the advantages and disadvantages of home birth here.

Overconfidence Bias: Do You Overrate Your Abilities? (Most People Do)

Overconfidence Bias: Do You Overrate Your Abilities? (Most People Do)

What is overconfidence bias? How do you avoid it? Overconfidence bias is when a person feels more confident in the accuracy of his or her judgment than objective standards would indicate. Overconfidence bias can lead to bad decisions and faulty predictions. Learn what overconfidence bias is, see examples of different types of overconfidence bias, and learn how to avoid the overconfidence effect.

Emily Oster’s Sample Birth Plan

Emily Oster’s Sample Birth Plan

Birth plans are short documents that describe what you want to happen during your birth and what treatments you’re willing to accept in which situations. OBs and nurses have a slight aversion to them because they may signal some inflexibility to do what they think is best in critical situations.  But Oster argues it’s far better to think about hard decisions and articulate your preferences beforehand than to come up with them on the fly. Here are the elements of Emily Oster’s birth plan:

What Not to Eat When Pregnant

What Not to Eat When Pregnant

Pregnant women are commonly recommended to avoid a long list of foods – raw eggs, raw fish, cheeses, deli meats, to name a few. The general fear is that food illnesses can bear a risk to the fetus. Are these real threats and foods you avoid when pregnant? Or are these overblown? Emily Oster argues that many food illnesses are actually no riskier than when you’re not pregnant. But two forms are, and are worth avoiding. Foods Commonly Avoided that are Actually Fine Typical food poisoning is caused by Salmonella, E.coli, and Campylobacter. These pathogens cause diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting,

6 Framing Effect Examples: Context Matters in Decision-Making

6 Framing Effect Examples: Context Matters in Decision-Making

What are framing effects in psychology? How do framing effects affect decision making? The framing effect is a cognitive bias in which people make decisions based on whether the options are “framed,” or presented, as losses or gains. An outcome presented as a gain is much more favorable as the same outcome framed as a loss. We’ll cover how framing effects impact your decision making and look at framing effect examples.