Cognitive Bias in Genetics and Anthropology Discussions

[pmokeefe]

Thread for discussing cognitive biases in general and this field in particular.
Please ground the discussion in published studies, as opposed to personal observations of the "person/group X is biased and I'm not" variety.

There's a massive list at Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

This recent paper attempts to bring some order to that.
Toward Parsimony in Bias Research: A Proposed Common Framework of Belief-Consistent Information Processing for a Set of Biases (2023)

My group is a reasonable reference --- particularly applicable to this field

Ethnocentric bias (e.g., Oeberst & Matschke, 2017) Giving precedence to one’s own group (not preference)
In-group projection (e.g., Bianchi et al., 2010) Perceiving one’s group (vs. other groups) as more typical of a shared superordinate identity

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a 2011 best-seller by Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman with extensive discussion of cognitive biases.

Any other articles/references you've found helpful in understanding cognitive biases?

How about of a list of cognitive biases particular to this field?

[pmokeefe]

Genetic determinism, essentialism and reductionism: semantic clarity for contested science (2023)

Abstract
Research linking genetic differences with human social and behavioural phenotypes has long been controversial. Frequently, debates about the ethical, social and legal implications of this area of research centre on questions about whether studies overtly or covertly perpetuate genetic determinism, genetic essentialism and/or genetic reductionism. Given the prominent role of the ‘-isms’ in scientific discourse and criticism, it is important for there to be consensus and clarity about the meaning of these terms. Here, the author integrates scholarship from psychology, genetics and philosophy of science to provide accessible definitions of genetic determinism, genetic reductionism and genetic essentialism. The author provides linguistic and visual examples of determinism, reductionism and essentialism in science and popular culture, discusses common misconceptions and concludes with recommendations for science communication.

[pmokeefe]

A couple of cognitive biases that seem (to me) to be recurrent in this field.

Insensitivity to sample size is a cognitive bias that occurs when people judge the probability of obtaining a sample statistic without respect to the sample size.

Need for closure is an individual's desire for a clear, firm answer or peaceful resolution to a question or problem to avert ambiguity.

Insensitivity to sample size might sometimes be a consequence of the desire for closure. It might also simply be due to a lack of background in statistical analysis.

Clustering illusion
The clustering illusion is the tendency to erroneously consider the inevitable "streaks" or "clusters" arising in small samples from random distributions to be non-random. The illusion is caused by a human tendency to underpredict the amount of variability likely to appear in a small sample of random or pseudorandom data

Out-group homogeneity - when individuals see members of other groups as being relatively less varied than members of their own group

a variant: the common assumption that populations in the distant past were more homogeneous than current populations