“What you see is all there is” (WYSIATI) is a cognitive bias concept introduced by psychologist Daniel Kahneman in his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” The concept refers to the human tendency to make judgments and decisions based on the information immediately available to them, without considering what they do not see or know.
According to WYSIATI, when people evaluate a situation, they are often unaware of the limitations of their knowledge, leading them to overestimate the information they have and to ignore what they don’t know. This bias is a result of the brain’s preference for coherence and its tendency to construct a story or pattern from the information at hand, regardless of whether it is a complete picture.
WYSIATI plays a significant role in many cognitive biases and heuristics, including overconfidence, anchoring, and the availability heuristic. It can lead to overly simplistic explanations or conclusions, as people tend to fill in gaps with assumptions or expectations without seeking additional information.
This concept is particularly relevant in areas like decision-making, problem-solving, and risk assessment, where a lack of complete information might lead to suboptimal outcomes. Being aware of WYSIATI can help individuals and organizations take a more critical approach to information evaluation and decision-making processes, ensuring a more thorough consideration of both what is known and what might be missing.
Related Topics
- Law of Small Numbers
- Assigning cause to random chance
- Hindsight bias
- Confirmation Bias
- —Over Confidence and Over Optimism