Are Cognitive Biases as Important as they Seem for Data Visualization?

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Baigelenov, Ali, Shukla, Prakash, Zhang, Zixu, Parsons, Paul
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Baigelenov, Ali
Shukla, Prakash
Zhang, Zixu
Parsons, Paul
author_facet Baigelenov, Ali
Shukla, Prakash
Zhang, Zixu
Parsons, Paul
contents Research on cognitive biases and heuristics has become increasingly popular in the visualization literature in recent years. Researchers have studied the effects of biases on visualization interpretation and subsequent decision-making. While this work is important, we contend that the view on biases has presented human cognitive abilities in an unbalanced manner, placing too much emphasis on the flaws and limitations of human decision-making, and potentially suggesting that it should not be trusted. Several decision researchers have argued that the flip side of biases -- i.e., mental shortcuts or heuristics -- demonstrate human ingenuity and serve as core markers of adaptive expertise. In this paper, we review the perspectives and sentiments of the visualization community on biases and describe literature arguing for more balanced views of biases and heuristics. We hope this paper will encourage visualization researchers to consider a fuller picture of human cognitive limitations and strategies for making decisions in complex environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_03852
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Are Cognitive Biases as Important as they Seem for Data Visualization?
Baigelenov, Ali
Shukla, Prakash
Zhang, Zixu
Parsons, Paul
Human-Computer Interaction
Research on cognitive biases and heuristics has become increasingly popular in the visualization literature in recent years. Researchers have studied the effects of biases on visualization interpretation and subsequent decision-making. While this work is important, we contend that the view on biases has presented human cognitive abilities in an unbalanced manner, placing too much emphasis on the flaws and limitations of human decision-making, and potentially suggesting that it should not be trusted. Several decision researchers have argued that the flip side of biases -- i.e., mental shortcuts or heuristics -- demonstrate human ingenuity and serve as core markers of adaptive expertise. In this paper, we review the perspectives and sentiments of the visualization community on biases and describe literature arguing for more balanced views of biases and heuristics. We hope this paper will encourage visualization researchers to consider a fuller picture of human cognitive limitations and strategies for making decisions in complex environments.
title Are Cognitive Biases as Important as they Seem for Data Visualization?
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.03852