Microblindness
Microblindness is a proposed composite bias in which small warning signs are dismissed as insignificant until they accumulate into larger failures.
| Microblindness | |
|---|---|
| Field | Cognitive psychology; risk analysis; institutional failure |
| Author | Andrew Lehti |
| Status | Proposed composite bias |
| Former name | Incremental Ignorance |
| Related framework | Cognitive Impasse |
| Related concepts | Normalization of Deviance, Proper Channels Bias, Status Quo Bias |
Microblindness describes the tendency to overlook minor issues because each appears too small to matter. The danger lies in accumulation. Small defects, weak signals, unresolved contradictions, or procedural shortcuts become normalized until a larger breakdown appears sudden.
Within Cognitive Impasse, Microblindness protects systems from correction by minimizing early warnings. The system does not fail without signs; the signs are treated as too minor to interrupt the routine.
The concept is adjacent to normalization of deviance, where repeated deviation becomes culturally accepted when it does not immediately produce disaster.
See also
- Normalization of Deviance
- Proper Channels Bias
- Cognitive Impasse
- Status Quo Bias
References
| Cognitive Biases | |
|---|---|
| Biases | Confirmation Bias · Status Quo Bias · Authority Bias · Negativity Bias · Optimism Bias · Self-Serving Bias · Overconfidence Bias · Publication Bias · Source Attribution Bias |
| Effects | Dunning-Kruger Effect · Backfire Effect · Bandwagon Effect · Social Proof · Pluralistic Ignorance · Learned Helplessness · Normalization of Deviance |
| Composite biases | Academic Distorting Bias · Always Has Been Bias · Ancestral Default · Anticipatory Compliance · Autonormia · Bleak Retrospection · Brevity Bias · Cognitive Dissonance Avoidance · Dismissal Bias · Dystopian Forecasting · Enforced Sameness · Galileo Dismissal · Galileo Gambit · Habitual Inertia · Imposing Inferiority · Infamication · Invulnerability Bias · Microblindness · Normative Reflex · Programmed Emotion Bias · Projected Inferiority · Projected Introspection · Projection and Imposition of Inferiority Bias · Proper Channels Bias · Sympathy Bias · Utopian Forecasting |
| Framework terms | Cognitive Impasse · Cognitive Bias Reinforcement · Cognitive Inertia · Imposition and Projection · Manifested Responses · Selective-Mindedness · Semmelweis Reflex · Standardized Obedience |