0Cognitive bias is quite common in most social and workplace situations. For example, Rachel, one of your friends, may feel strongly about environmental issues and invest in products with organic or natural origins.
She feels that every one of her seven friends(including you) in her social group also likely to invest in such products.
Let's say that you are out shopping with your groupmates, and a sales rep comes upto your group and asks you to purchase a non-organic cosmetic product, Rachel refuses.
What she is trying to convey here is that everyone else in the group has a similar taste and preference as far as natural products are concerned. However, one of your friends, Laura disagrees and proceeds to buy it, as she perceives it to be useful.
Rachel is concerned about her decision and asks the rest of the group, whether they agree with Laura's opinion or hers. Only one of your friends supports Laura's argument.
In this case, Rachel has just faced what we call a 'false consensus bias.'
So, what does this mean?
Simply put, the false consensus bias is the tendency of individuals to overestimate the degree to which others share or agree with their opinions, attitudes, beliefs and the like.
This is more common in a group setting where people want to believe that their opinions and outlook is more prevalent in the general public than it is.
The false consensus effect is more substantial when it comes to certain situations. If one adheres to secure moral codes and values, and he/she believes it to be essential and correct, the degree of false consensus tends to be stronger.
