Of anchors, turkeys and IKEA - 6 cognitive biases and how they can influence your thoughts and actions | ZENTRALNORDEN Blog

2024 | 7 min reading time

Have you ever heard of cognitive biases? These unconscious blind spots actually influence our thoughts, actions, perceptions and even our memories on a daily basis. The quick conclusions that our brain draws through these unconscious thought processes happen quite intuitively.

Our brain is constantly confronted with completely different situations of varying complexity - this is where cognitive biases come into play, these thought patterns are our brain's attempt to make sense of our complex world and make intuitive decisions.

In total, there are over 180 cognitive biases and you probably don't even know about most of them, even though each and every one of us is influenced by them. This makes it all the more important that we become aware of our cognitive biases and learn to deal with them. Because unconscious cognitive biases can occur not only in everyday agency life, but also in the design of analogue and digital products for other people - and it is precisely these biases that should be recognized in good time.

The first impression counts.

When making decisions, we are often unconsciously influenced by the first value or the first piece of information that is presented to us. This so-called anchor effect ensures that our judgment is systematically biased in the direction of this initial information, even if it is actually irrelevant. Behind this is a cognitive bias.

A classic example: the first price proposal in negotiations. This anchor sets the framework for further discussion and influences how we evaluate subsequent offers. Even if we know that the anchor is perhaps set too high or too low, it remains anchored in our minds.

To counteract the anchor effect, it helps to consciously adopt other perspectives and not be guided by the initial information. This allows decisions to be made in a more objective and balanced way.

Self-made is more valuable.

It is all too understandable that we attribute more value to things that we create or assemble ourselves. However, this is a cognitive bias that influences our thinking, known as the 'IKEA effect'. This effect describes the tendency to value a self-built piece of furniture or a DIY project more highly just because you worked on it yourself.

But who would have thought it, this bias can also influence our perception by making us believe that the result is better or more valuable than it may actually be when viewed objectively. This is because the time and effort we have invested reinforces our emotional attachment to the object.

To make clearer decisions in everyday life, it can help to become aware of this bias and consider whether the actual value of a product has really been increased by your own work, or whether the IKEA effect is at work here.

That somehow took longer than expected ...

The cognitive bias of the “planning fallacy” describes the tendency to misjudge the effort involved in planning major tasks, in particular to underestimate them. As project planning is part of everyday life in the agency business, a sure instinct is required here to consciously deploy resources and people in projects.

Direct discussions with experts from the team can provide important assistance in assessing tasks. With their Online Planning Poker, our friends at Bleech have created another method for estimating and evaluating efforts together as a team.

Of turkeys and trends

Trends come and go, and design is no exception. From fonts and layouts in editorial design to interface design, there are always new trends to be found. The turkey illusion describes the false assumption that a trend will always continue. The “turkey” in the title of the cognitive distortion is characterized by the metaphor that “the turkey is fed daily until suddenly Thanksgiving is just around the corner” and would mean that the turkey traditionally ends up in the oven on the American holiday. The trend suddenly ends or is replaced by a new one and the methaphorical turkey is fed again from the beginning.

But why are products, whether analog or digital, designed based on trends if they can be out of fashion so quickly? The main reason for this is, of course, that brands want to be represented in a contemporary way and it seems logical to follow current trends.

But why do you decide to consciously follow a trend in a project in the first place? This usually has something to do with the brand, the brand target group and, of course, the design medium. Depending on who the brand is aimed at, how it is to be perceived and how sustainably the product to be designed is to be used. For a one-year poster and social media campaign, for example, trends may be suitable as the time period and dwell time are shorter, but an app design would again require a sustainable design approach. In the second example, we would assume regular and long-term product use, and a complete design change based on a trend would be associated with high costs.

And last but not least, of course, it also depends on the trend and the design direction; after all, there are also directions such as Swiss typography or Bauhaus-esque design that are anything but new, but have an evergreen effect and are therefore particularly suitable for a sustainable, modern-looking design.

Kill your Darlings!

This phrase is now particularly widespread in design thinking and means something like not simply jumping on the first or “favorite idea” just because it was the first idea or because you are particularly attached to an idea for subjective reasons. A similar pattern can be found in the cognitive bias “insistence on persuasion”. This bias supports clinging to ideas and hypotheses, even though new information has become available in the meantime that contradicts the assumption.

In the course of a design project, assumptions about target groups and their behavior are often made at the start of the project and in the conception phase, and it is precisely these that need to be validated in the course of a project. For example, by means of qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, focus groups and, of course, user testing later on in the project. If an assumption turns out to be wrong, this means adjustments in the next iteration. After all, insisting on beliefs can lead to the flop of a product or campaign in case of doubt.

Completely unaffected by everything?

Even after learning about all these cognitive biases, are you not one of them? In fact, there is another cognitive bias, “bias blindness”, which describes the tendency to consider oneself unaffected or barely affected by cognitive biases - a dangerous assumption.

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Tags: Biases, cognitive distortions, cognitive bias, thinking

Marina Rost

UX Design | ZENTRALNORDEN

As a strategic designer with an IoT background, Marina is dedicated to all UX & UI topics at Zentralnorden, always with the right method as an ace up her sleeve. Marina is strategically involved in many areas and always has the metaphorical scalpel at hand. The more complex the topic, the better.

Felix Kühl

Former Art Direction | ZENTRALNORDEN

Felix Kühl is actually an art director, but his creative nature draws him to writing from time to time. Even if he doesn't write that much, he gets to the heart of his thoughts in those rare moments when he picks up a pen. Felix loves developing creative concepts and expressing himself creatively. In addition to his work as an art director, he relies on the intentional use of language to promote exchange and new perspectives.