Discover the mental distortions that are clouding your everyday judgements and decisions. Make better decisions, build stronger relationships, and gain clarity in mindset....
What is a cognitive bias?
A cognitive bias is a “subconscious error in thinking that leads you to misinterpret information from the world around you, and affects the rationality and accuracy of decisions and judgements.” (Ruhl, 2021).
These biases are a result of our brains trying to simplify the complex world around us so that we may make decisions and conclusions quicker and more easily - although they often lead to misjudgements.
Becoming aware of these biases will help you improve your mindset, make better decisions, and build stronger relationships.
Let’s look at some examples…
1) Confirmation Bias
Ah. This is a common one. Something which you and I are probably both guilty of.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for and interpret information in a way that confirms your existing beliefs. So when presented with new information, you cherry pick the parts that reinforce what you already believe, and conveniently disregard all information that contradicts your existing beliefs. This is likely to be why it can be so hard to change people's minds - they refuse to listen to opposing sides of the story.
"What the human being is best at doing, is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact – Warren Buffet
Example: Internet and Social Media
Internet webpages and social networking sites use complex algorithms to show you content that you would prefer to see, based on your past activity. Thus, we are continually being presented with information that reinforces our views, whilst the algorithm is excluding information that would run contrary to our preferences. In addition, we tend to choose news sources that align with our perspectives. However, different news channels often present the same news differently depending on which source they are and which viewpoints they are reflective of – leading to a biased coverage of topics.
When we receive biased information from biased sources, we form biased conclusions. As a result, we don’t get the full picture.
If you want to go deeper and learn from more examples, I recommend reading "The Art of Thinking Clearly" by Rolf Dobelli.
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored” - Aldous Huxley.
2) Self-serving Bias
This one is a funny one because a lot of people fall into this bias without knowing it, yet if you mention it to them they will likely deny it.
Self-serving bias is the tendency to give yourself credit for any successes but blame any failures on outside factors that have nothing to do with you. Sound familiar?
Let’s give an example. Say you’re in school and you got an A on an exam, you’re so proud of yourself because it was all due to your hard work, intelligence, and efforts, right?. But if you fail an exam, well it was because the questions were unfair, the teacher chose the wrong topics, etc.
This bias helps to protect our self-esteem. Our thinking becomes distorted due a need to maintain and enhance our self-esteem. But this limits us in the long run because it perpetuates illusion and error. It causes us to reject valid criticism, focus too much on our strengths and thereby overlook our faults, and fail to take personal responsibility when things don’t work out.
If we don’t recognise our faults and weaknesses, how can we ever improve?
If you want to learn more about the distortions in your thinking and how to make better decisions in your life and relationships, you should read the fascinating book Thinking, Fast and Slow by bestselling author Daniel Kahneman.
3) Hostile Attribution Bias
Now this bias is the tendency to interpret other people’s actions as hostile, even though they are ambiguous or neutral. So for example, you see two people laughing and you immediately assume that they are laughing at you, or someone bumps into you by accident and you insist that it was on purpose. You are attributing hostile intent to ambiguous situations.
Of course these two examples are fairly mild but, as you can imagine, different situations may get a bit more hairy, so to speak. For instance, if someone does mistakenly attribute hostile intent to someone else's actions, they may in turn become aggressive themselves and so it becomes a vicious cycle. So, the takeaway message is make sure you don’t jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts. A lot of the time, situations are not what they seem as first glance.
Don't jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts
4) In-group Bias
This occurs when people show preference for people who they perceive to be belong to their ‘in-group’.
What is an ‘in-group’?
People love to categorise things – especially people. People mentally categorise others into different social groups, these may be according to race, gender, social class, political affiliation, education etc.
Research has repeatedly shown that people show favouritism and preferential treatment to people they believe are “more like us” over people who don’t belong to their group – aka the ‘out-group’ (Cadsby et al., 2016; Everett et al., 2015)
As you’ve probably guessed, this is the root of pretty much all racism and discrimination – which I’m sure I don’t have to point out the problems to you.
One of the many other problems with this bias is that people are more likely to agree and support with an idea that came from a member of their ‘in-group’ even if what they are saying or doing is wholly incorrect or improper. In addition, when it comes to allocation of resources, for example, people give their in-group members more privileges which then leads to unequal opportunities and outcomes for everyone else.
How can society thrive when certain divisions are left out?
We are far more similar than we are different
5) Naïve Realism
Naïve realism is the tendency to believe that we see the world completely objectively, the facts are clear to see, and anyone who disagrees with us must be uninformed, irrational, or biased. But the ironic thing is is that this is a bias. No matter how clear you believe your perception to be, we rarely see things completely objectively.
Everyone has had different experiences in life, everyone has developed unique personalities, attitudes, and beliefs – all of which influence how we see the world. We see things subjectively as we have a subjective experience of life. Everything we have encountered and formed memories about are stored in our brains, and we see things through the lens of all that we have learnt and all that we have experienced thus far.
Have you heard that there are often 3 sides to every story?
Your side, their side, and the truth.
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are" - Anais Nin
There you have it - 5 cognitive biases you should be aware of in yourself and in others. Leave a comment if you have any questions or requests!
Recommended books to read:
The Art of Thinking Clearly - Rolf Dobelli.
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman.
References:
Cadsby, C. B., Ninghua, D., & Song, F. (2016). In-group favourtism and moral decision-making. Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organisation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.05.008
Everett, J. A. C., Faber, N. S., & Crockett, M. (2015). Preferences and beliefs in ingroup favouritism. Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00015
Ruhl, C. (2021). What is cognitive bias? Simply Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-bias.html
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