Survivorship bias is something that I try to keep in mind when I consume media or browse social media. It is the tendency for people to overemphasize the survivors and deemphasize those that did not survive.
Background
During WW2, the US military recorded bullet holes from German defenses and noted the areas where bullets had penetrated and suggested adding reinforcements to these key areas in order to boost plane survivorship. However, a statistician, Abraham Wald, suggested adding reinforcements to the locations that did not have bullet holes, because we only have data on the surviving planes. A more accurate assessment would take the existing plane data and use it to show the areas in which a plane could be shot at while still being able to return home (making it a survivor). The trouble is the tendency to over-index on the stories from survivors and not take into account those that did not make it.
