Alternative blindness

What it is

Judging an option on its own merits without asking "compared to what?", so a mediocre choice looks fine because the better alternatives never come into view.

Related

• Anchoring bias
  Without alternatives to compare with, the first option or number anchors the judgment.
• False dilemma fallacy
  A false dilemma hides the other options from view, which is alternative blindness imposed from outside.
• Inability to close doors bias
  Both are about the cost of options: alternative blindness ignores the better options we forgo, inability to close doors keeps worthless ones open.

Appears in

• The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly#71: Alternative blindness

References

• Wikipedia: Alternative blindness en.wikipedia.org
• The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia: List of cognitive biases en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia: Cognitive bias codex en.wikipedia.org

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