Concept · Cognitive Bias: Risk perception biases
Automation bias
Origin: Mosier & Skitka, 1996
Biological Parallel
Social insects follow pheromone trails automatically—even when trails lead to depleted resources or danger. Automation bias: over-reliance on algorithmic decision-making without verification. Army ants follow chemical loops until they die of exhaustion (ant death spirals). The mechanism: individual verification is costly; social information is cheap. Evolution favors trusting the algorithm until catastrophic failure reveals its limits. Delegating cognition to external systems creates blind trust.