Cognitive Biases

Your brain is wired with shortcuts that helped our ancestors survive. In modern financial markets, these same shortcuts can cost you dearly. Learn to spot them.

Based on research from Kahneman, Tversky, Thaler, and other pioneers of behavioural finance. Content adapted from “The Unbiased Investor”.

Cognitive Bias

Anchoring Bias

Why the first number you see dominates your thinking — and how it affects your financial decisions.

3 min read

Cognitive Bias

Confirmation Bias

We seek information that confirms what we already believe — and ignore what doesn't. Here's how it sabotages your finances.

3 min read

Cognitive Bias

Loss Aversion

Losing £50 hurts more than finding £50 feels good. This asymmetry drives many of your worst financial decisions.

4 min read

Cognitive Bias

Overconfidence Bias

We consistently overestimate our knowledge, abilities, and the precision of our predictions.

4 min read

Cognitive Bias

Sunk Cost Fallacy

We keep investing in losing propositions because of what we've already spent.

4 min read

Cognitive Bias

Herding

We follow the crowd into investments, assuming everyone else must know something we don't.

4 min read

Cognitive Bias

Recency Bias

We give too much weight to recent events and assume current trends will continue indefinitely.

4 min read

Cognitive Bias

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Those with the least knowledge often have the most confidence in their financial abilities.

4 min read

Cognitive Bias

Status Quo Bias

We prefer to keep things as they are, even when change would make us better off.

4 min read

Cognitive Bias

Mental Accounting

We treat money differently depending on where it came from or what we've labelled it, even though all pounds are equal.

4 min read