In this episode of The Brainy Business podcast, Melina Palmer explores the fascinating world of lazy brain biases. This episode is part of an eight-part series exploring various biases, focusing on how our brains prefer to take the path of least resistance. This rapid-fire episode provides a brief overview of each bias, helping you understand their roles, interactions, and impacts on decision-making.

Melina refreshes this episode in anticipation of her upcoming interview with Alex Edmonds about his book May Contain Lies, which discusses misinformation and the importance of understanding information responsibly. Lazy brain biases play a significant role in how we process and accept information, making this episode a perfect primer for the conversation with Alex.

In this episode:

Discover how the default effect influences our choices.
Learn about the decoy effect and its impact on decision-making.
Understand the automation bias and its implications in a tech-driven world.
Explore the law of the instrument and functional fixedness.
Gain insights into framing, anchoring, and the contrast effect.
Examine biases and their influence on decision-making.
Identify how surrogation and Parkinson's Law of Triviality affect business decisions.
Learn strategies to push your brain’s limits and overcome lazy tendencies.

Show Notes:

00:00:00 - Introduction
Melina introduces the episode and its focus on lazy brain biases, part of an eight-part series on biases.

00:02:30 - Default Effect
Melina discusses the default effect, where people tend to choose the default option presented to them.

00:04:00 - Decoy Effect
The decoy effect is explained with examples from espresso machines and The Economist subscription options.

00:06:00 - Automation Bias
Melina talks about our excessive dependence on automated systems and the importance of checking their effectiveness.

00:07:30 - Law of the Instrument and Functional Fixedness
These biases are discussed with examples like the Apollo 13 mission.

00:09:00 - Framing and Anchoring
Melina explains how framing and anchoring influence our decisions, with links to related episodes.

00:10:30 - Contrast Effect
The impact of priming and previously presented information on decision-making is discussed.

00:12:00 - Biases
Melina explains how our senses influence our external decisions, using judges' sentencing patterns as an example.

00:13:30 - Ambiguity Effect and Action Bias
These biases are explored with examples from medical decisions and soccer goalies.

00:15:00 - Stereotyping and Illicit Transference
Melina discusses how our brains make assumptions about groups and individuals.

00:16:30 - Surrogation
The concept of surrogation is explained with an example of customer satisfaction surveys.

00:18:00 - Parkinson's Law of Triviality
Also known as bikeshedding, this bias is discussed with examples from pricing strategies.

00:19:30 - Lag Effect and Levels of Processing
Melina talks about effective learning strategies and how to trick your lazy brain into focusing.

00:21:00 - List Length Effect
The impact of list length on memory is discussed, encouraging listeners to push their brain's limits.

00:22:30 - Conclusion
What stuck with you while listening to the episode? What are you going to try? Come share it with Melina on social media -- you'll find her as @thebrainybiz everywhere and as Melina Palmer on LinkedIn.

Thanks for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Android. If you like what you heard, please leave a review on iTunes and share what you liked about the show.

I hope you love everything recommended via The Brainy Business! Everything was independently reviewed and selected by me, Melina Palmer. So you know, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. That means if you decide to shop from the links on this page (via Amazon or others), The Brainy Business may collect a share of sales or other compensation.

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Get the Books Mentioned on (or related to) this Episode:

May Contain Lies, by Alex Edmans
Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Nudge, by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein
What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell You, by Melina Palmer
Evolutionary Ideas, by Sam Tatam

Top Recommended Next Episode: Functional Fixedness (ep 194)

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