The Influence Mechanism and Control Measures of Cognitive Bias and Heuristic Thinking

In contemporary economic theory, the assumption of limited rationality has gained widespread acceptance, gradually superseding the long-standing assumption of complete rationality. This shift in intellectual framework has given rise to the domain of behavioural economics. Cognitive Bias and Heuristic Thinking have become the core themes of behavioural economics and cognitive psychology. The objective of this study is to examine the mechanisms and control measures of Cognitive Bias and Heuristic Thinking in human decision-making. The present study employs a literature review approach, synthesising a review of previous relevant literature and a focus on experimental studies conducted over the past five years, to analyse the experimental data. The study found that Cognitive Bias and Heuristic Thinking were more strongly influenced by certain situations and specific groups, such as time pressure, high cognitive load of tasks, and strong emotional arousal conditions. Furthermore, adolescents (owing to the ongoing development of their prefrontal cortex), older adults (due to their declining cognitive resources), and those with a high emotional sensitivity (due to their heightened emotional reactivity) are more susceptible to these automated processing mechanisms and thus make systematically biased decisions. Besides, people can intervene in and even effectively harness the influence of cognitive bias and heuristic thinking by using a series of control measures.In summary, this paper systematically reviews the experimental evidence, reveals the deeper psychological mechanisms that influence human judgments, and proposes multi-dimensional, actionable intervention suggestions, laying the foundation for future applications of behavioural economics theory in finance, healthcare, education and policy design.