We’re All Flawed
The Mind Traps That Keep You Stuck
J. A. McCreery
A mental bias is a systematic error in thinking, usually short term, that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them. Many of the decisions and judgements they invoke are plain wrong and can be disproven on further thought.
These cognitive errors are mental shortcuts in our primal brain that once helped to make sense of the world around us, a product of evolution nonetheless. You can’t get rid of them, you will never outrun them, but an awareness of them will help you be one of the few people that will pause, consider them, and make more thoughtful and rational decisions.
- Cognitive dissonance – incompatible beliefs
One of Aesop’s fables explores this idea;
A fox looked up at a vine, he stared longingly at the juicy, overripe grapes hanging from the vine. He jumped for the vine. He jumped again. He jumped a third time, landing sorely. The fox turned up his nose: “I don’t really care”, those grapes aren’t even ripe. Why would I want those grapes?
From this analogy we get the term “sour grapes”, which is idiomatic for putting down or expressing disdain about something that one desires but cannot have.
The fox had 3 choices, (1) work harder and get to the grapes, (2) admit he couldn’t reach the grapes (harms pride) or (3) reinterpret the situation retrospectively (‘I didn’t want those grapes’).
Option three essentially entails creating a new belief which conflicts the first. Two contrasting beliefs held at once – this is cognitive dissonance. All rich people are greedy and evil but you want to be rich.
It is a self-protective mechanism, when one fails they adjust their views to encompass the failure. When one applies for a job and fails, or studies really hard for a test and is beaten by their friend who hardly studied, they don’t reason that the other person was better, just that they didn’t actually want it or that it was unfair. It’s a rationalization.
Excessive dissonance has been linked to discomfort, mental stress, anxiety and even depression.
A person must question their conflicting beliefs. Is this new belief because I need an excuse? Am I telling myself this new belief because I couldn’t get what I wanted?
“You can play the clever fox all you want – but you’ll never get the grapes that way.” – Rolf Dobelli
- The halo effect – information sequences
An example by B. C. Marx makes this effect clear; What do you think about Alan and Ben?
Alan is intelligent – industrious – critical – impulsive – stubborn – envious
Ben is jealous – obstinate – headstrong – sharp – hardworking – loyal
If you are like most people you see Alan in a better light than Ben, even though their character traits are remarkably similar. The order in which we receive information affects our thinking, even if the information is the same. More credit is given to the first pieces of information than the last. Our brain – the supercomputer it is – seeks to quickly create a story of the person or situation in our minds.
Take another example Marx offers. If we learn that someone graduated from a prestigious university, the halo effect will distort all other traits we attribute to that person without any evidence.
Further, a multitude of studies have proven that attractive people are automatically perceived as nicer, more honest, and more intelligent. Even at school if a student answers two essay questions and the teacher gives the first a high grade, the teacher is more inclined to give the second a higher grade – vice versa for low grades.
The halo effect is the mind attempting to fill in the blanks about a person or thing, it’s a shortcut whereby we tell ourselves stories that are often inaccurate from reality. To move past it one must decorelate sequences and rebuild images of people or ideas objectively.
Note: this article was based on Nobel Prize winning Psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s bestseller Thinking, Fast and Slow and analysis by B. C. Marx