Cognitive Bias Assignment

***The report should use a magazine-style writing (i.e. you should be creative to make it a fun read for most undergrads student***
—You are expected to provide a report about one of the human cognitive biases (except “loss aversion”, “decoy”, “default” and “bandwagon effect” that were discussed in class) of your choice and discuss its implications for consumer behavior. The report should read like a magazine article and be professionally written. Thus, prepare your report as if you want to publish it in a magazine for general public, say the Daily Titan. In addition to that, it is required to have a reference list that shows sources of your information.
There are many cognitive biases identified by researchers. The web is replete with information about them and their applications. You can also find lots of books and/or YouTube videos about them. Therefore, once you choose a cognitive bias for your project, finding resources about it shouldn’t be an issue. Most of them also have Wikipedia pages with references to other external websites and also the scientific research papers that have found evidence for the bias.

—These are some of the other biases that you can work on:
Confirmation bias, present bias, compromise effect, affective (mis)forecasting (or Impact bias which is closely related to it), endowment effect, mere touch effect, mere exposure effect, halo effect, IKEA effect, etc.
Use story-telling techniques to engage the reader). Using pictures is encouraged but is not required.

—The following items should be communicated in your writing:
1. A description of a cognitive bias: What is it, why does it happen.
2. The implications of the cognitive bias for consumer behavior (the implications can be for marketers or consumers themselves; e.g. how it helps consumers to make better decisions, exert self-control, save more money, etc.). For this part, you can also rely on your own experience and thoughts in addition to your research. If you think about it, you might remember occasions that you noticed a company used this bias to make you purchase something. Feel free to discuss your own experience or how this new knowledge may change your future behavior. However, if your own experience is not substantial, make sure that you discuss other implications in other contexts.
3. References: Please make sure that you list the references that you used at the end of the article using any style (e.g., APA or MLA). Do NOT use citations in the body of your article. However, you can are encouraged to create hyperlinks to your references similar to how the online media link to other related stories.
Grading Guide for Assignment 1
Your work will be graded based on the following criteria:
1. Coverage of the topic (35 Points):
a. What is the cognitive bias?
b. What are its implications for marketing?
c. Appropriate referencing
2. Language and Style (25 points):
a. Simple language (No jargons)
b. Magazine-style (Professional language)
c. Engagement (Fun to read, Story-telling)
3. Grammar and Punctuation (15 Points)

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