14 Times Your Brain Will Fool You—And You Won’t Even Notice

Our brains are sneaky tricksters, constantly fooling us with biases and illusions that shape how we see the world, make decisions, and even view ourselves, often without us even noticing!

Alyana Aguja
May 16, 2025
5 min read

14 Times Your Brain Will Fool You—And You Won’t Even Notice — Xavi Cabrera from Unsplash

Our brains are master illusionists, always distorting our perceptions in ways we’re not even aware of. From how we estimate risks to how we rationalize our choices, mental shortcuts and cognitive biases can lead us astray without us even realizing it. By learning about these tricks of the mind, we can begin to catch our brains in the act and make more rational, better-informed decisions.

1. The Power of Anchoring

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While you shop, you may see a $200 coat with a price slash to $100, which then appears to be a bargain. In reality, you were only anchored to the initial price, even though the true value of the coat was somewhere around $50. Your brain fools you into believing you are getting a discount, even when you’re not really getting such a great bargain.

2. The Halo Effect

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If a person is attractive, we are likely to believe they are also intelligent, pleasant, and competent, without proof. A well-groomed person can be considered competent or reliable, even if their credentials don’t justify this conclusion. This mental shortcut usually results in poor choices based on surface qualities.

3. The False Consensus Effect

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When you believe everyone thinks like you, then you are likely experiencing the false consensus effect. For example, if you have strong political allegiance to a party, you might think most people around you share your views, when in fact, their views might be different. This exaggeration of similarity may end up isolating you and providing an unreal picture of social processes.

4. Confirmation Bias

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You may look for articles that share your beliefs, skipping those that present opposing views. This bias supports your assumptions and makes you more resistant to new information. Confirmation bias usually comes into action whenever we are sure about something, such as politics, health, or relationships, without covering the entire range of evidence.

5. Recency Effect

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When you return from a meeting, you may recall the very last thing that was said, even though the key message was presented at the beginning. Your mind assigns too much importance to the most recently received information, skewing memory. This makes it more difficult to commit facts into long-term memory within their original context and can affect decisions.

6. The Availability Heuristic

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If you watch the news and hear lots of reports of airplane crashes, you might begin to feel that flying is a more dangerous mode of transportation than it really is. Your mind uses the most readily accessible memories or images, creating exaggerated perceptions of risk. It’s not the statistical likelihood that is causing your thoughts, but how readily examples will come to mind.

7. The Spotlight Effect

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Ever enter a room and think that everyone is looking at you? Odds are, they’re not — they’re too busy focusing on their own thoughts. Your brain tricks you into thinking you’re the focal point when you’re not, distorting your self-consciousness and inducing unnecessary stress.

8. Hindsight Bias

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After a significant event such as a stock market crash, you may later say to yourself, “I knew that was going to happen.” In reality, you likely did not know it with absolute certainty, but your mind leads you to believe that the result was predictable all along. This bias results in overconfidence and distorts our perception of past choices.

9. The Illusion of Control

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You could feel that you can control the results in games of chance, such as assuming you can control the roll of the dice or the shuffling of the cards. This is one of the cognitive illusions, where we assume our actions have more influence than they actually do. The truth is that luck has a much larger influence than we care to admit.

10. The Framing Effect

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Would you rather have a 90% chance of winning or a 10% chance of losing? The two are functionally equivalent, yet the way they’re presented can have a dramatic effect on whether you’ll choose them. Our minds like to make decisions based on the presentation of information and not necessarily on the information itself, and this can result in irrational choices.

11. Sunk Cost Fallacy

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Suppose you’ve already paid $100 for a concert ticket, but when the night of the event arrives, you’re too exhausted to attend. You may find yourself feeling pressure to attend despite your exhaustion because you’ve “already invested the money.” Your mind manipulates you into continuing along a line of action even when it’s no longer sensible, simply because you’ve already committed resources.

12. Cognitive Dissonance

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If you already know smoking is bad but continue doing it, your brain will attempt to rationalize the activity to minimize discomfort. You may convince yourself, “I don’t smoke as much,” or “It makes me calm.” Your brain seeks consistency between actions and beliefs and causes self-deception to ensure mental comfort.

13. The Dunning-Kruger Effect

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A person who has recently learned a new ability may feel that they’ve mastered it and be too confident about it. That is the Dunning-Kruger effect, where individuals with lesser knowledge overestimate what they can do. It is the mind’s mechanism to give oneself excess confidence in untested domains and, as such, make inferior decisions or take unnecessary risks.

14. The Misattribution of Arousal

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If you’re nervous when doing something exciting, such as rollercoaster riding, your mind may misinterpret the bodily arousal as a sign of romantic interest if you’re with someone you’re attracted to. This is misattribution of arousal, where your body’s heightened state is attributed to feelings not related to the actual stimulus. This can cause unintentional feelings or behavior based on physiological responses instead of true intent.