Cognitive biases that play havoc with your life

A cognitive bias is an error in reasoning, evaluation, and memory.  It is a systematic malfunction in the process of thinking. You remember an event based on the way your memory functions, which often lead to biased thoughts and decision making. Some cognitive biases are related to problems in attending to details. You have to be really selective in what you pay attention to Since it is a limited resource. This often leads subtle biases to creep in, influencing how you see and think about the world.

Cognitive bias occurs when you hold onto your preferences and beliefs regardless of contradictory information.

How do these biases work?

A brain is a powerful machine but it is also subject to limitations. Cognitive biases make the complex work of brain simple by processing the information in speed. Hence, they aid us in making quicker decisions and reach conclusions faster. While making decisions or judgments about your world, you try to be objective, think logical and evaluate all information that is available to you. But, these biases often lead to poor decisions.

Some of them are discussed below to keep you out of the trap in future:

The Bandwagon Effect.

This is the tendency to follow what other people are doing. People stop exploring various options and go with the idea that is first put on the table. Doing what everyone is doing makes us feel good, even if they are bad alternatives.

 Planning Fallacy.

The tendency of thinking that we can do things quicker than we can actually. This leads to procrastination and incomplete work.

The ostrich effect.

This is exactly what the name means. You hide your face in the ground (not literally) when faced with a scary situation rather than facing it head-on. When you receive a negative reaction in relations or at work, you just push the problems away.

Confirmation bias.

It is very common. It’s the tendency to seek information which can support our already existing beliefs. What happens here is you first form opinions and seek evidence later. Whereas the case should be that we base all our opinions on facts.

Attribution error.

This is when you attribute a situational behavior of a person to his personality. There could be various other reasons for a person’s poor work performance but the most commonly attributed factor is often “laziness”.

Conservatism bias.

What happens here is that already existing information takes priority over new information. Do not reject an idea quickly just because it is different than your beliefs or are radical.

Lastly, when you start feeling that you have mastery over biases, you are in all probability experiencing blind spot bias. When you start to find biases in others and not in yourself; it’s blind spot bias.

Recognition of biases is invaluable as it enables us to think objectively and makes the communication effective.