Kleshas: Five Root Afflictions Behind All Biases

The kleshas—avidya (ignorance), asmita (ego), raga (attachment), dvesha (aversion), and abhinivesha (fear of death)—are identified by Patanjali as five fundamental psychological afflictions that generate all suffering and distorted perception. This framework transforms the understanding of cognitive biases from a collection of isolated mental errors into manifestations of deeper psychological conditions. Avidya (ignorance) generates the foundational misperception underlying all biases; asmita (ego) drives self-serving and motivated reasoning biases; raga (attachment) creates preference biases and desire-based distortions; dvesha (aversion) generates avoidance-based biases and defensive reactions; abhinivesha (fear-based) fuels numerous anxiety-driven cognitive distortions. Rather than treating confirmation bias, availability bias, and representativeness bias as separate problems, this framework reveals them as branches of a unified root system. This comprehensive reference model suggests that effective bias mitigation requires addressing the deeper kleshas rather than only correcting surface manifestations. Understanding which klesha underlies a particular bias pattern enables more targeted and effective intervention.