CLICK ANY ELEMENT → WEBINAR CARD · ← → TO WALK THE TABLE · ESC TO CLOSE · CLICK A BLOCK TO ISOLATE IT
FORCEY · BUGS IN YOUR BRAIN · THE PERIODIC TABLE OF BAD DECISIONS · v1.3TAXONOMY ADAPTED FROM THE COGNITIVE BIAS CODEX · 4 BLOCKS × 4 FAMILIES × 4 TIERS = 64 OF 188
How to read this table
Psychologists have documented more than 180 cognitive biases — systematic shortcuts your brain takes that quietly distort what you see, what you believe, what you decide, and what you remember. Most of them you will rarely meet. This table curates the 64 most common ones — the biases most likely to show up in your work, your money, your relationships, and your memory — and arranges them so the layout itself does the teaching.
The 4 blocks
Every bias strikes at one stage in the life of a thought. Read the blocks left to right as that lifecycle:
SIGNALInformation arrives — and you notice only a slice of it.
SENSEYou turn that slice into a story about people, causes, and odds.
SPEEDYou act on the story — usually under time pressure.
STOREThe result becomes memory — and the memory gets edited.
RowsFrequency of occurrence. Row P1 biases ambush you daily — start there. By row P4 they appear only in specific situations.
ColumnsFamilies. Biases in one column share a mechanism — the same trick in different costumes. Beat the mechanism and you weaken the whole column.
Using itClick any element for its definition, a Spot it example, and a Counter-move. Use ← → to walk the table, the search box to find a bias, and the block buttons to isolate one stage.