ABSTRACT
Research differs from the casual observations of everyday life by being more deliberate, systematic, and transparent about how it tries to answer questions. Research methods also counterbalance the effects of bias by starting with the assumption that any phenomenon of interest is a product of random chance. Cognitive biases shape our interests and our world view, influencing what we choose as topics for research and the questions we ask about those topics. There are many specific ways our thinking can be biased, but the circumstances that produce them fall into four general categories: needing to act fast, having too much information, deciding what to remember, and assigning meaning to experiences. The researcher must explore the question systematically and document each step with transparency in order to show that there is reason to believe something beyond chance is a better explanation.
