Cognitive biases in decision making process

The focus of this thesis is mainly on the area of human decision making. During the decision process we are subjected to several influences, which bias our judgement. Therefore, we may be misguided towards wrong decisions. In addition, it is important that the display of distorted influence is regularly repeated with the same persons. Thus, we may assume that we are talking about a universal apparatus of the human mind. The aim of this thesis is also to identify the above-mentioned influences, and mainly to understand the nature of their origin. The knowledge resulting from the research could become important and useful tool for the reader, since the knowledge may be used for the improvement of our own decisions in both private and professional life. The research is based on interdisciplinary approaches to cognitive science. On one hand we use the functional model of mind, on the other hand we utilize a wide range of empirical data from several fields, such as psychology, behavioral economics and the sciences concerned with the brain. Using these tools, we analyze specific influences, which are considered to be important from the point of view of decision making. They are for example feelings, emotions, social influences, language, self, experience, expectations and prior forms of judgement. Based on the analysis of the influences, hypotheses about their interconnectedness are deduced. Finally, we suggest several practical methods, which should help us to improve our own decision making and help us to avoid wrong conclusions.