Cognitive Biases in Decision Making Aditya Chauhan 11 High School Student, Department of Science, GD Goenka Public School, Kashipur, India*Correspondence should be addressed to Aditya Chauhan; [email protected] © 2024 Made Aditya Chauhan.ABSTRACT: Cognitive biases, which are inherent in decision making, are highly present and impact judgments and decisions, which cause systematic errors. This research focuses on the universality of the cognitive bias and how it emerged, how it appears and how it can affect decision making across each genre. As it is realized, biases like confirmation biases, availability heuristic and anchoring compromise the rational decision-making models, resulting in non-optimal decisions. Based on the synthesis of literature and research findings of organizational scholars, this paper explains how these biases emerge, when they are most likely to occur, and how their detrimental impact can be managed. The results therefore support the need to employ increased attention and sensitivity in organisational profiles to counteract the effect of integrated TOQ biases, which may disrupt the quality of the decisions made by professionals. In this way, there is a possibility of improving the decision-making spectrum and coming up with better decisions that are both purposive and adaptive with regards to the long-term objectives. It can be considered that this research adds knowledge to the study of cognitive biases and their impact and influence to key decisions that can be made. KEYWORDS: Cognitive biases, decision-making, confirmation bias, availability heuristic, anchoring, rational thinking, judgment errors, mitigation strategies, empirical evidence, behavioral economics. 1.INTRODUCTIONBackground and Importance Cognitive bias is a specific type of a systematic deviation from the norm that affect the judgment and decision making of people. These biases stem from the phenomenon of using heuristics in the brain since they ease processing of information as measured by the need for cognition scale. On one hand they can be effective to help people make quick decisions especially during pressure filled situations on the other hand heuristics make people bias when making their decision making hence coming up with wrong decisions. For example, confirmation bias or the inclination to seek, interpret, and remember information that support initial assumptions may solidify false arriving at conclusions. Likewise, the availability heuristic that sought to establish the likelihood of an event through ease of which examples come to one’s mind influences risk perception. The following are implications of cognitive biases especially in activities that take place in business, healthcare and public policy arenas: It is important to identify and appreciate these biases since they result in inefficiencies, ranging from incorrect investment decisions to poor policy choices hence influencing the success of an individual or an organization.Objectives and Significance The main purpose of this study is to examine how and why cognitive biases affect decision making and how the impact can be minimized. It is expected that by examining development and outward expressions of such prejudices, this work will reveal a detailed picture of the ways particular biases colour logical reasoning. Additionally, the research aims at raising awareness of the importance of mitigating cognitive biases at the workplace as decisions with high(stakes) implications are made. Thus, increasing awareness and stimulating the production of interventions promotes efficient decision-making on the part of an individual or organization: decisions that would be more reasonable, better grounded in fact, more consistent with long-term objectives. The relevance of this study is the possibility to expand the knowledge of cognitive biases and provide specific recommendations on how to reduce their impact on decision-making in high-risk situations.Research Questions and Hypotheses This research is guided by several key questions: What are the genesis of cognitive biases and what process underpin them? In what ways does these biases appear in different decisions, especially in situations where there risks in the decisions that are made? It is really important to question: what can be done in order to reduce the effect of cognitive biases in decision making? Based on these questions, the following hypotheses are proposed: Based on these questions, the following hypotheses are proposed: Cognitive biases are automatic thinking patterns anchored in the brain’s use of heuristics that though good for immediate decision making result in biases. The prevalence and impact of specific biases vary depending on the context, with certain biases being more dominant in particular decision-making scenarios. Mere debiasing techniques and decisional aids can be a very effective way of minimizing or altogether avoiding the impact of cognitive biases and make decisions more rational \cite{Cacioppo_1982}. These hypotheses will also be examined in this research with the help of an extensive review of the literature that will be supported by the empirical data needed to help manage cognitive biases in decision-making. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK2.1 Definition and Conceptualization of Cognitive Biases Cognitive biases are systematic errors in reasoning arising from the way people’s minds works and result in irrational decisions. These are ingrained in the psychological mechanisms by which human mind interprets and assesses data and as such are likely to lead to systematic and recurrent errors. In its broadest sense, cognitive biases refer to tendencies or ways through which people process information that places them in a position to make a premised decision. They stem from individuals’ attempts to make decisions by using rules of thumb often referred to as heuristics since they may increase convenience but decrease accuracy in conveying and evaluating information. Cognitive biases are confirmation bias whereby people tend to consider information which supports their perspective and the anchoring bias that is the initial information phrase that strongly influences concrete evaluations. Cognitive biases are not just wastes or mistakes; they are systematized and recurrent, featuring in choices ranging from trivial to strategic and in every field of endeavor from business to medicine. It is critical to recognize such biases in order to enhance decision making since they are such a natural part of the process.2.2 Overview of Decision Making Decision making is a sophisticated cognitive activity, in which a person has several choices open and has to choose one of the options available to him. Many times it is in the form of a process with phases that are the identification of a problem, data collection, options appraisal and selection of the right solution. Decision-making can be divided into two primary types: Perception and learning styles of this generation can be categorized as being both intuitive and analytical. A rational system of decision making is systematic and it is based on the process that involves the use of ‘rules of thumb’ or heuristics and prior experience. Decision making is some times fast and it is often used where fast decisions are required. Analytical decision making, however is more slow and deliberate where one has to take some time to analyze the data and reach a conclusion using logic \cite{da}. This type of decision-making is applied where there are a lot of risks involved in decision-making processes, and a lot of clear and serious planning. In the decision-making process, systematic and random decisions always play a critical role, but they are always bound to have cognitive biases. Intuitive solutions are particularly vulnerable to biases, particularly since they are reached on the basis of heuristics while analytic solutions may be impacted by biases during the process of information evaluation. The nature of these processes as well as the cognitive biases have significant impact on decision making, thus the need to understand them better in improving decision making \cite{c7bmrl}.2.3 Exploration of the Association between Cognitive Biases and Decisions Heuristic and Systematic cues affect decision making significantly as the outcomes obtained are rarely rational or optimal. These biases alter how people perceive and process information as well as influence their decision making processes. For instance, in using the availability heuristic, one is likely to arrive at wrong evaluations due to overestimation of risk that is bound to occur in cases whose incidents are easily remembered. Also, there is a confirmation bias which can cause positive-negative frame of reference, which only accepts information in favor of its hypothesis and disregards the rest. In most career areas including the business environment or healthcare, such biases result in decisions that do not correspond to rational behavior or desirable goals and objectives thus impacting the performance and efficiency of organizations negatively. Thus learning about the connection that cognitive bias has with the decision making process it becomes easy to minimize its impact on the decision making process leading to better decision making all through \cite{Sternberg_2020}. 2.4 Relevant Theories Some theories reveal more about cognitive biases and their interaction with decisions and decision making. Some of the widely accepted theories are as follows: One of the most popular theories is Prospect Theory formulated by Kahneman and Tversky. According to Prospect Theory the decision-maker perceives gains and losses differently, which often results in mistrust to risk in the context of gains and desperation in the context of loss. This theory involves the effects of various cognitive biases including the loss aversion when making decisions under risk. Another relevant theory is the Dual-process Theory, which posits that human thinking operates through two systems: Slow and effortful, known as System 2 and the Fast and Automatic System is known as System 1 which is characterized by biases. While the System 1 offers a fast and intuitive decision-making system, it contains biases The System 2 is somewhat less partial to biases, yet it is more time-consuming. These theories therefore emphasize about the fact that the decision making is not very simple and the cognitive bias is very much influential in determining the results. Subsumed under this stream of research, this work shall seek to develop a framework that synthesizes theoretical ideas formulated from the described theoretical perspectives to address the concerns relating to cognitive biases in decision-making.3. TYPES OF COGNITIVE BIASES3.1 Anchoring Bias Anchoring bias is a cognitive effect whereby people build decisions on the first piece of information they come across known as the “anchor”. This bias takes place even within this type of anchor if it is incorrect or includes incorrect information. For instance, in bargaining, the initial anchor always shapes the others, irrespective of their worthiness; this is true despite the fact that the first offer may not hold any realistic value. Stable evidence confirms that even ridiculous numbers act as anchors in Affecting Individuals’ Estimates and Judgements \cite{Tversky_1974}.This tends to result in errors in decision-making, because this bias prevents or severely limits people from having access to other information that may provide different views. If sufficient adjustment is not made to get away from the anchor, people can end up with conclusions that are totally wrong in the context of reality especially when the stakes are high like when predicting an organization’s fiscal performance or when trying to make a decision on a case in law.3.2 Confirmation Bias This is a variety of selective thinking where a person will seek out knowledge that is in harmony with the belief that he or she prefers and ignore knowledge that is inconsistent with that belief. This bias can be seen in; negative or positive selective exposure to information, a tendency to view ambiguous evidence through a-line, and positive or negative selective recall. For example, in a case of political preference, people are likely to read news articles from their preferred political side, which only reinforces their political view \cite{Nickerson_1998}.It does not only affect forming accurate conclusions but also suppresses debates as people become ‘stuck’ with their Bias. The corresponding behavior in decision-making can be highly irrational, as decision makers may fail to include seemingly irrelevant information in their decision-making process and thus make decisions which are based on insufficient or distorted data.3.3 Overconfidence Bias Overconfidence bias relates to situations where a person overestimates his or her knowledge, skills or the forecasting of an event. This bias can occur in a personal level by making judgment or predictions or even in a professional level by making forecasts. For instance overconfidence could be manifested as investors’ tendency to think that they can beat the market whenever they invest with little evidence to support their opinion, thus engaging in high risk taking. Some studies about self-confidence have demonstrated that overconfidence is more rampant among people with average ability, which they lack self-estimate of themselves. Some of the negative consequences include; An inclination to ignore important data, failure to assess risks appropriately, and poor decisions that perpetuate adverse impacts that would influence decisions made later \cite{Moore_2008}. 3.4 Availability Heuristic The availability heuristic is another cognitive bias whereby people base their estimation of the likelihood of an event on the frequency with which such an event comes to their mind. This bias tends to cause people into over-representing the likelihood of an event in occurrence via the use of past experience and immense memory. For example, when audiences of media are exposed to information concerning natural disasters or the occurrence of recession, it is not uncommon to find a situation where people will develop a wider perception of the threat posed in their region by such incidences for instance a natural calamity or recession, in spite of the fact that statistical analysis may indicate otherwise. In this regard, people develop a perception that can be out of touch with reality and hence they develop irrational fears or set wrong priorities \cite{Tversky_1973}. 3.5 Hindsight Bias Regression inertia, also commonly known as the ‘I-knew-it-all-along’ effect is the phenomenon in which learners and students retrospectively evaluate events as being more predictable than they were in reality. This bias can alter how an individual recalls or reconstructs a decision made and might make people overconfident about the future predictions. For instance, when serial economic shock, there will be people who will say they predicted it when in fact, there is no evidence they ever did. Cognitive errors such as hindsight bias may significantly impair one’s ability to learn from experience due to a person’s inability to fully appreciate the randomness of events \cite{1975}. This bias can also lead to bias assessments and criticism of other people’s decision making and hence hinder constructive feedback and learning in various aspects of life. 3.6 Framing Effect The framing effect is a choice shift in which decision making occurs based on the presentation of information not its substance. This kind of bias is applied in a situation where you are given the same choice but the way you are presented with affects your decision making. For example, in decision making participants are more likely to go for a particular medical treatment when it is referred to as having a 90 percent success rate as opposed to a 10 percent failure rate. However, the framing of the information affects the perception of the decision-makers because how information is presented differs from one statement to another.This bias has important consequences in different settings, such as business marketing, health care, and policy making. In marketing, companies may manipulate products which may have negative flicks, and present them in ways that makes consumers develop positive attitude towards them. In a medical context, how risks and rewards materialise makes a difference in the patient’s decisions on the course of the treatment. While being aware of the framing effect prevents decision-makers from being deceived by the form in which information is presented and helps them to use communication tools to help people make more rational and correct decisions \cite{d}.3.7 Other Common Biases Besides the mentioned above core biases there are several other biases that are frequently found while making decisions. For instance, there is the bandwagon effect in which people change their attitude or behaviors only because other people are doing so, resulting in conformities and group thinking. This bias may lead to inferior decision making since people may silent their own rational mind and conform to the group norm, especially when working in a group setting where an employee’s opinion differing from the rest may not be welcome.Likewise, the Dunning-Kruger effect works in a similar way where people with low ability in a given domain will overestimate their ability in that domain hence promoting indifferent confidence. This can lead to making wrong decisions because those that are afflicted by the Dunning-Kruger effect will not find the information or help they need, because they think they already know enough on the matter. Because knowing and acknowledging them helps to think more critically and make better decisions across different fields, these and several other cognitive biases must be recognized.4. COGNITIVE BIASES IN PERSONAL DECISION MAKING4.1 Role of cognitive biases in everyday decisions Heusdens and Borsboom (2015) concluded that cognitive biases are a very influential aspect of decision making processes in the day to day life of an individual, due to the fact that it outlines on how a person perceives information and also how they make decisions and come up with conclusions. They can influence the perception and judgments of even the most regular decisions like picking the dinner meal, as well as critical decisions in a person’s life such as decision in choosing a career or area to invest in. For example, people often use the availability heuristic in choosing their vacation spot: opting for those places they have seen in commercials or friends’ posts on the internet even if there are equally beautiful places, exist. Likewise, confirmation bias makes people search for information that supports their current preference or belief and not look for all the available choices. Although this makes the process of decision-making much easier it leads to making a choice that is not the best one which underlines the importance of recognizing cognitive biases in the decision-making process to improve the quality of decisions made on a daily basis \cite{2008}. 4.2 Impact on Health, Finance, RelationshipHealth Optimism Bias: People may not really appreciate the chances of acquiring diseases in their lifetime hence adopt poor health habits like taking fatty foods or not exercising at all. Confirmation Bias: They tend to find the evidence that fits their belief about health and ignored the evidence that might urge them to practice healthy lifestyle. FinanceOverconfidence Bias: It could also lead to impulsive investing, where the investors will invest in the stock of their choice at extremely high risk and sometimes without adequate research, thus prompting investors to lose lots of their wealth. Anchoring Bias: This is because; financial choices depend on the first cost or estimated prices may lead people to make decisions based on obsolete or stale information. Relationships Halo Effect: People can have a bright impression of a partner’s personality and do not pay much attention to such negative actions of their partner as selfishness, control, criticism, and so on; in this case, they may experience disappointment or have conflicts in a relationship. Self-Serving Bias: Because people may take credit for the successes of the relationship while bringing complaints and problems that partners create back to the partners, resultant communication clogs the efficient solving of problems. 4.3 Case Study A clear illustrates of cognitive biases in personal decision makings is when a person invested on stocks. Let us look at a case of an investor who has higher gains in a specific share. This might make this individual have an overconfidence bias whereby they think they have better understanding of the market than what is actually the case, or lack of impulse control that makes this individual invest large sums of money into high risk stocks without adequate research. When the market conditions are unfavorable, this bias rears its head for it leads the investor to make wrong decisions thus suffering major losses.Another related case has to do with health behaviors. A study conducted on smokers showed that many of the people had a tendency of underestimating the risk of lung cancer because of optimism bias where the clients believed they could not be part of the statistics. This unstudied optimism worked in their disadvantage by making them fail to take measures to quit smoking thus suffering negative health repercussions that could otherwise could have been averted.Cognitive biases remain prevalent in personal decision-making indicated by the examples above, meaning that more efforts should be devoted to finding ways of minimizing their impact. Thus, increasing awareness and encouraging decision making can lead to optimized results in an individual’s health, finance/wealth, or relationships. 5. COGNITIVE BIASES IN PROFESSIONAL DECISION MAKING5.1 Influence on Workplace Decisions Hiring Practices Similarity Bias: The equality and diversity could be ignored due to the fact that hiring managers tend to go for candidates who have similar attributes to them. Confirmation Bias: It has the problems of being biased, usually when the manager conducting the performance appraisal is only in a position to provide information that confirms to a predetermined style or manner about the employee \cite{Neale_1992}. Project Management Planning Fallacy: It may come as a surprise, but teams usually fail to understand just how much time and effort would be needed in order to finish the work on time and on a set budget. Sunk Cost Fallacy: Experienced decision makers may go ahead to continue funding the unrewarding projects due to commitments rather than engaging in a revised assessment of the projects feasibility \cite{Blumenthal_Barby_2014}. Team DynamicsGroupthink: Conservatism may also become a drawback as people tend not to think critically as they yearn for agreement and thus make wrong strategic choices as creativity is suppressed. Risk Aversion: Teams may not have the creativity to try out new solutions to problems instead, they resort to practices that have been in use hence the lack of brilliant ideas. Communication Framing Effects: This is due to cramming due to the way information is conveyed and as a result there are differences in outcomes due to context rather than content. Availability Heuristic: Decisions may be made based on current or past occurrences and/or events rather than record results or analysis of the records \cite{ab}. 5.2 Impact on Management, Leadership, Organizational behavior When the cognitive bias occurs, it may significantly affect the management, leadership, and overall organizational behavior. For example, it is possible that they will be overconfident and be convinced that their plans and choices cannot go wrong thus undertaking projects with more risk than they can handle and without properly evaluating the risks involved. This can lead to an organizational culture of acceptance of mediocrity, less creativity and an environment where people who have contrary opinions to the leadership are suppressed. Likewise, flaws such as group thinking make it hard to analyze matters critically especially when working in a group and due to the urge to conform everyone agrees even though they have the wrong decision. These biases can also create a culture within the organization because they prevent change and inclusion of new ideas that different people may bring to the organization. failure to consider the following bias means failing to promote a suitable leadership culture by encouraging active and constructive communication. 5.3 Examples and Case Studies One of the classic examples of cognitive bias in professional decision-making is the Blockbuster company story. The organisation’s leaders indulged in overconfidence bias whereby they assumed that their business model because successful in the videos rentals space would continue to be effective, as more companies like Netflix broke into the market. This overestimation of market position hindered their ability to realize changes in the consumers’ market preferences meaning that they could not evolve adequately hence their downfall.One more situational example can be devoted to the tech company’s recruitment procedure. To reduce biases, the organisation used structured interviews but the interviewers themselves succumbed to the confirmation bias in that they only concentrated on the candidates’ documents that supported their given beliefs. This led to the formation of a rather monotonous workforce, with little creativity and variation among employees; it would show that there’s a need for constant training and sensitization on how to eliminate prejudice in hiring processes. These examples share the ways in which cognitive biases influence the workplace and stress the significance of education and counteraction. Thus, awareness of such biases can help and enable the organization to make better decisions, increase the representation of different groups, and increase the efficiency of work to achieve the goals set. 6. MITIGATING COGNITIVE BIASES6.1 Techniques for identifying and reducing biases Preventing cognitive biases is a two-step process consisting of consciousness and the using of organized procedures for minimizing their have an impact. One such technique is the checklists which make the decision makers to think in different perspectives and make them challenge their approaches. For instance, Decision Methods like the ‘Six Thinking Hats’, serve to force more comprehensive examination of issues by requiring one to look at the problem from every perspective. Further, the institution of regular debriefing sessions following major decisions provides a good opportunity to review the process in order to determine if any bias made an impact on the end-result \cite{2009}. This reflective practice not only increases participants’ awareness of their biases but also helps the team members gain an understanding about the biases within the entire team.The first approach involves promoting the use of diversity with work groups allowing for the work group members to engage in meaningful discourse where the dissimilarities can be aired. It also aids in the identification of prejudice, mainly because the diversification in the team encourages the members to question their colleagues’ assumptions \cite{2006}. In addition, feedback processes can be used, in which outcomes of decisions are compared with initial assumptions and help people modify their conceptions in subsequent situations. Frequent renewal of the decision-making focus with an emphasis on the unwillingness of bias detection is one of the key ways to transform organizations’ awareness of biases and enhance the decision quality.6.2 Awareness and Mindfulness in decision-making It is therefore important that employees within organizations receive adequate education and training in order to minimize on cognitive biases. What organizations should consider is to embark on training that deals with cognitive psychology and decision making \cite{2013}. These programs can be useful for the employee in that the employee gains insight into how these biases work and the possible consequences for decision results. If the learning dynamics of the participants involves putting them through an arena as close to the real-life as possible, then it will be a great way to help the participants discover their biases in action. In addition, the use of case problems describing the effects of negative biases that lack moderation can serve as a cautionary example to students \cite{O_Connor_1999}. Lifelong learning can enhance an organizational culture that encourages people to develop the skills to question and learn from their experiences and other people. Biases are embraced and can be made part of the staff’s training so organizations can encourage the staff to make decision with correct information. This approach is unique in a way that it not only helps employees understand the blinders that prevent them from being impartial but also make everyone responsible to be able to scrutinize their decisions and those of others \cite{2011}. 6.3 Awareness and Mindfulness in decision-making This indicates that there is need to foster attention and encourage practicing to be alert and attentive in all the decisions that are made. The cognitive bias may be easily identified by people who use mindfulness in their routine practices like meditation and journaling as it helps them understand what they are thinking. It can also foster greater deliberation because people are more receptive to accepting information that challenges their can introduce concepts which will also help foster proper and deeper thinking because individuals become more receptive to new kinds of information. Also, reputing a culture whereby individuals are encouraged to raise their concerns and problems fosters the reduction of prejudices. One important facet that enables professional teams to provide constructive input is that dissenting viewpoints have been held effective by peers which gives all individuals the confidence to present their views without being judged by groupthink or any such simplified thinking prejudices \cite{Brown_2003}. 6.4 Use of Technology and algorithms It can thus be seen that in dealing with cognitive biases, technology and algorithms could be quite beneficial. Decision support systems that involve the use of analysis of data as a basis for making the decisions eliminate the need to make decisions based on beliefs that are influenced by biases. For instance, it remains possible for an organization to rely on predictive analytics and not the assumptions that might be held on the basis of past experiences. For instance, analytics and self-learning can help in identifying bias in the decision-making processes and thus enable organizations to neutralize them. Yet it is important that the algorithms, at their core, are not prejudiced and do not reiterate the above-mentioned cognitive biases \cite{aa}. Through the integration of human heuristics into big data decision-making methods, organizational decision-making quality will improve apart from controlling cognitive biases hence improving the sectors’ results. 7. IMPLICATIONS OF COGNITIVE BIASES IN VARIOUS FIELDS7.1 Behavioral Economics Biases pertain to thinking, risk/reward, and consumption decisions. Loss Aversion: Lose aversion rationalizes the financial decisions since people admire avoiding loses to getting equivalent gains \cite{Barberis_2003}. Framing Effects: Decisions are highly likely to be influenced by the presentation of options concerning perceived value. Understanding these biases helps economists create strategies that align with actual human behavior \cite{Adkisson_2008}7.2 Healthcare Cognitive biases are highly disruptive leading to incorrect decisions both in the patient’s and the provider’s aspects with significant health understanding \cite{Kahneman_2013}. Availability Heuristic: Patients may read news articles about diseases and may overemphasize their risks of contracting those diseases and end up being anxious or have to undergo tests. Confirmation Bias: Providers might target confirmation of the symptoms that could match the first differential diagnoses thus missing the other diagnoses \cite{Slovic_2006}. Optimism Bias: This may lead to failure on the part of the patients to appreciate Health implications of lifestyles, resulting in worsening of health complications \cite{a}. Addressing these biases can improve communication and enhance healthcare outcomes. 7.3 Law and Policy Making It is very important that all decisions made by the legislators and the judges are not influenced by any cognitive biases within the system. Anchoring Bias: That is why, some judges tend to be overly dependent on the recommendation made at the onset and this in equal measure causes disparity in the sentencing \cite{Sunstein_2005}. Availability Heuristic: Policymakers may focus on subjects that dominate the headlines and could therefore, misallocate resource. Knowledge of these biases should help reduce bias and increase rationality in legal and Public Policymaking processes \cite{2001}. 7.4 Technology and AI Cognition influences how the algorithm is designed and how it is with the users. Biases of developers cause the AI system to bring in stereotypical and inequality, which are wrong. Confirmation Bias: People especially stick to algorithms that pre-empt what they want to learn only to be fed on what they already believe. To eliminate biases the development team must be diverse, algorithms should be clearly revealed and consumers should be informed \cite{2016}. They come from the perspective that biases must be managed in order to enhance fairness and efficiency of technology systems. 8. RECOMMENDATIONSPractical steps for individuals: There are several things that people can do to reduce the impact of the cognitive biases to their decisions making. First, the increase of self-reflecting may contribute to the ability of the individual to notice how they think and feel to have a better chance of noticing bias as it happens. Such a record can empower these people with tools like a decision journal, which will help them keep a record of their actions. Also, checking with others before going to a decision could also mitigate this bias since one is likely to find holes in their reasoning when they explain their thoughts to others. Case discussions and thinking through of the different scenarios on how things could be differently could also help give a balanced approach and improve the decision making. Organizational policies and practices: Cognitive biases should be recognized and prevented in organizations through the development of proper policies and measures that will help in this cause. This can involve daily, weekly or monthly training sessions that may involve the review of the common and relevant cognitive biases, decision making and critical thinking. Decision biases can be reduced through implementing standard decision-making template like using checklists and decision-making panels in strategic decisions. Promoting healthy communication and positive feedback means that employees within the group shall come up with complaints and negative opinions hence avoiding the situation where they all think that they are wrong to think like that. Also, the decision, outcomes should be checked periodically and analyzed for bias patterns with necessary changes implementation. Suggestions for policymakers and educators: This is a major role of policymakers and educators who have the responsibility of managing and ironing out on cognition bias at a systemic level. The current and future policymakers should perhaps adopt policies which seek to encourage organizations to be more open in their decision making especially to allow everyone to give their opinion. Using BI in policy making can also enable the policy maker to come up with better policies, which address human behavior. For educators, it is possible to incorporate the concepts of cognitive bias and critical thinking into lessons for students in order to enable the latter to deal with bias in their own decision processes \cite{2013a}. Promoting collaborative learning increases students ‘perception of plurality that may in turn help cultivate a generation of informed decision makers. By taking these steps, both policymakers and educators can contribute to a more aware and bias-sensitive society.9. FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS9.1 Emerging areas of Study With the development of the so-called cognitive heuristics literature, several novel research themes are called for discussion. An area of development seems to be the integration of cognition’s interface with behavioral and neuroeconomics to explain how brain functioning leads to biased decisions. However, there are concerns that continuity led to a reinforcement of the cognitive biases that surfaced from the investigations conducted in digital environments of social media and algorithm-driven content. It is thereby possible, to grasp how these platforms increase or decrease biases, that is helpful insights about users’ behaviors and decisions. Additionally, additional studies that explain cultural differences in response to such cognitive biases can also improve the current cultural theories of the way societies approach decision making hence improving on the current cultural interventions \cite{Mellers_1998}. 9.2 Potential Applications The use of research in cognitive biases holds a great and significant effect across multiple areas. In medical practice, data derived from cognitive bias studies can be applied in the design of educational modules for health care personnel, with a view of improving diagnosis and patients’ interaction. Applied to organizational environments, they can inform the development of the decision making procedures that would reduce prejudicial effects and enhance productivity in areas such as staffing, project work and leadership. Cognitive biases can be taken into consideration by policymakers by using research to enhance the interventions thereby contributing to the formulation of better polices \cite{Raghunathan_1999}. Also, the increase in awareness of the bias also enables institutions to apply the information and findings to their education systems hence preparing the people of the future to avoid biases in their daily lives. 9.3 Suggested Methodologies Thus, it falls for future research to use both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms including surveys and experiments on the one hand and interviews and case studies on the other hand. This feature can give a broad perception of bias in cognition hence a more profound approach of studying the bias in various contexts. Longitudinal research can also be helpful in determining the shift in biases with the help of various interventions or changes in environments \cite{2013b}. 9.4 Ethical Considerations Conflicts of oprn ethical nature supervene when investigating CBs, especially those that point to the possibility of intentional influence of the decision-making mechanisms. The participants are the main subject of research and thus have to find ways of protecting the participants from harm, especially where they are likely to be deceived into participating in an experiment. In addition, generalization of results must be done with great consideration, mainly given the applications impacts in susceptible users \cite{Becker_2017}. There is need to encourage the right use of cognitive bias research, especially in the implementation of bias reduction measures that create further segregations. CONCLUSION The present research paper has substantiated and demonstrated that cognitive bias influences decision-making in behavioral economics, healthcare, law and technology in different ways. Key findings that are studied include aspects like loss aversion, confirmation bias, the framing effect and generally they show how rational decision making is overridingly influenced resulting in what can be termed as near optimal choices. Furthermore, the identification of the Types of Specific Personal and Professional Decision-Making Contexts pointed out to the fact that there is an urgent need to address the above biases. Thus, through structured decision-making tools’ usage, as well as raising awareness about the problem, the quality of decision-making can be enhanced and negative impact of cognitive biases – minimized. It is now critical to be aware of cognitive biases in today’s challenging and rapidly changing environment where decisions are made based on incomplete and sometimes uncertain information. The significance of acknowledging these biases is the kind of impact that these have on a person’s actions and his/her decisions. Thus, when people know how these and other cognitive biases work, they can gain better control over their flawed, irrational tendency and contribute positively to the self and society. The findings of this study are therefore very important in emphasizing the need for continuing education and training and also valuing critical learning environments. The findings of this research have their applications in several perspectives in several endeavors affecting individuals, organizations and the government. Implementing measures to self-insight or specially to avoid cognitive biases can improve decision making in what concerns health care, business environment or politics. Schools, colleges and universities can act as catalysts and ensure that the next generation of leaders learns how to best deal with the biases and prejudices that will exist in their society. In conclusion, it is important to recognize that people are not rational and the analysis of cognitive biases applied to decision making supports this fact. Going forward as we find ourselves in an ever-complicated society, self-identification of the bias and its subsequent elimination will be critical in encouraging appropriate decision-making. Subsequent studies should endeavor to uncover more about these biases and look for efficient ways of eliminating the bias influence on people’s decisions so that the decisions made are accurate, fair, and moral.CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
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