Causality bias

Abstract

The causality bias, also known as the illusion of causality, occurs when people believe that there is a causal relationship between events that are actually independent from each other. This affects many areas of our daily life. For instance, causality biases have been shown to be at the heart of pseudoscience, a serious problem that consists of any belief or practice that pretends to be scientific but is not supported by evidence. The proliferation of those beliefs and practices could be based on illusions of causality, as it is very common to overestimate causal relationships between, for instance, a drug that we take to reduce pain, and the reduction of pain. This chapter summarizes the evidence on these biases, the main theoretical approaches that have been developed to explain them, some individual differences in showing these biases, some potential applications of this research to everyday life, and finally some evidence-based strategies to reduce these biases. From this chapter we shall conclude that our own judgments of causality are often biased, and thus, we should be cautious and think twice whenever we need to take important decisions.