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We Educate Wednesday 7/1/2020
Today's topic is something we hear a lot about, but may not understand the psychology behind it...bias.
Humans all have what are called cognitive biases. These are mental short cuts that our brains have programmed into them. These biases affect the way that we take in information as well as the decisions that we make. Cognitive biases are an attempt to "solve" four problems -- 1. When we need to act fast, 2. when we need to remember something, 3. when we do not have enough meaning from the information provided, 4. and when we get too much information.
There are hundreds of cognitive biases (and probably even more unknown to us). Because your time is valuable, and it would be ironic to write a long post about mental short-cuts, I will only cover a few of these cognitive biases. The ones covered will be "sunk cost fallcy", anchoring bias, blind-spot bias, confirmation bias, and the "ostrich effect".
1. Sunk cost fallacy -
A fallacy is something that is a false belief, or something based on bad reasoning. This cognitive bias is all about investment. People will continue with something even if it is unpleasant, or not correct, just because they have invested time, money, effort into it. An example would be you start watching a movie at home and because you have already spent money on the movie, or spent time on the movie, or spent effort finding the movie, you decide to continue watching it even if you do not like the movie. The psychology behind this is that you do not want your effort or resources to go to waste. This can happen with relationships as well. You may be dating someone for 8 months and keep going with it because of the effort and time you have spent even if the relationship is not going as well as you hoped.
2. Anchoring Bias -
As the name implies, this mental short-cut deals with us anchoring our thoughts and future perceptions to the first piece of information we receive. Say I told you that a coat costs $100, but I'll give it to you for $80. Your friend offers you the same coat, but tells you that it costs $60 but they want to sell it to you for $80. We both are selling it to you for $80, but you will anchor the information to the original numbers given to you by each person. That means you'll see my deal as a steal and your friend's deal as a rip-off.
If you are thinking, "Hey, this sounds like sales that stores use." You are right on the money (pun intended). Stores may knock down prices to what they really wanted to sell the item for but make it seem like they "slashed" the price down.
3. Confirmation Bias -
One of the most widely committed cognitive bias, this one means that we tend to seek out information or listen to information that confirms our beliefs. In other words, if we believe that Nissans are the best car brand, we will do searches online for "good things about Nissans" or pay attention to the positive reviews. If we are scrolling through our social media page, we may skip over articles that contradict our beliefs and prioritize ones that match our beliefs. It is important to note that some of the information you seek out may be based on facts. This bias is not saying that you are seeking out incorrect information, but just that we pay MORE attention to the information that we find supportive of our beliefs. Put another way, we may "information shop".
4. Blind-Spot Bias -
If after reading the last one, you thought "I'm glad I don't ever do that one!", you may be engaging in this bias. This one states that we think we are less biased than others or do not engage in cognitive biases. The psychology behind this is that we tend to be protective of ourselves, and rightfully so. This is an important quality for positive self-esteem. We actually may be better at seeing others' biases than our own. This may be why positive socializing/interactions can help us become more aware of our own biases, whereas being isolated may deprive us of helpful feedback.
5. Ostrich Effect-
Picture an ostrich. They will sometimes stick their head in the sand and therefore not see what is going on around them. Similarly, this cognitive bias says that we tend to avoid negative information. For example, we may not want to open the electric bill envelope when it comes this month because we are afraid of what the cost will be this month. We know we need to find out the information eventually, but would rather avoid it. Again, the psychology here is that we are self-protective. However, a researcher by the name of Josh Tasoff, PhD. states that we should always want more information. The more information you have, the more you can go off of when making a decision. However, it seems that humans want less information in certain situations. For more information on this bias, check out Hidden Brain's podcast episode called "The Ostrich Effect".
Everyone engages in cognitive biases at some point. I know that I have certainly fallen for the anchoring bias when shopping, and lost sight of the full picture when trying to confirm my own beliefs. Awareness that these short-cuts exist and acceptance that we do them are the first steps in addressing them. Challenging these beliefs may be uncomfortable, but could lead to growth and broader perspectives.
Thanks for reading and please feel free to ask questions!
(Photo credit: skillpower website--shows Sunk Cost Fallacy)
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