Short-Sightedness Is Harmful

Consider these scenarios. A passenger is on a 10-day cruise. Over this duration, she spots six green and six blue boats from the deck of her ship. However, the green boats pass by more frequently towards the end of the cruise, while the blue boats were concentrated at the beginning. After the cruise, there is a high probability she will say the number of green boats was more than the blue boats. Your sibling ordered Chinese thrice this month, over two weeks, and at the start of the month. However, over the past week, he ordered salad thrice. If you asked him what he has been eating this month, he would instinctively say that he has been indulging in salads. What’s common? It’s called the Recency Bias. It is the tendency to remember and form an opinion on the most recently presented information. Simply put, we give more weight to recent events. When 9/11 was still fresh in...