4 Cognitive Biases Ruining Your Life
By: Alberto Guerrero
Tags: Perception, Psychology, Bias

You are irrational. Despite all your cognitive capacities, logical reasoning doesn’t play a big role in your life.

Often we are forced to make quick decisions under uncertain conditions and then we resort to heuristics — shortcuts that provide a rule of thumb solution.

This is good enough for some types of decisions like choosing a restaurant to eat or a route to work but it can be dangerous in high stake situations.

For example, trial and error is a widely used heuristic that it’s ok when, let’s say, choosing the right key to open a door but not for brain surgery.

Heuristics probably have an adaptive origin. When our ancestors were in the Savannah they had to think and act quickly in order to survive. When you hear a noise you better run fast even if it’s just a false alarm. In that context, we survived thanks to our instincts, but nowadays, those knee-jerk reactions become a hindrance.

Today’s life is nothing like our ancestor’s, yet we still use some shortcuts that lead us to wrong conclusions and behaviors. Racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, violence, greed, compulsions, and many other behaviors and attitudes can be explained as a relic from living in tough conditions where defending the in-group was relevant for survival.

These are some of the most common heuristics/biases that work against us.

1. Confirmation Bias

We believe what we want to believe. When you read a review about a car you like, you filter out the negative information. You have already made a decision without taking into account all of the facts. All you are doing is looking for data to support your view. This is poor decision making and can be very costly.

Confirmation Bias affects our thinking on a daily basis. Whatever we hear in the news, we interpret it as confirmation of our previously held beliefs. When you support a political candidate you only listen to the information that supports your views disregarding everything else.

We don’t care about facts and new information doesn’t change anybody’s mind. We get locked into a position without even being aware of it.

Examples of confirmation Bias.

Supporting your candidate

Supporting your football team

Falling in love

Buying a house

Almost any decision with an emotional component is likely to be irrational.

The problem is that we don’t even realize and rationalize our decisions after the fact, creating a backtracking narrative that fits perfectly with our own lies. If you are a man in your 50s and just bought a fast motorbike, you have a perfectly reasonable explanation about it.

When you look back, you realize that some of the worse decisions in your life were made under the influence of confirmation bias.

How can you stop or minimize CB in the future?

Be aware that most of the time you are wrong. Observe your thinking process and question it. If you’ve gone through 3 divorces already what makes you think this time it’ll work out?

Don’t rush. Take your time, important decisions should be weighted over a long period

Inversion thinking. Turn the problem upside down. Think about what you are trying to avoid instead of what you want to achieve. Try not to be stupid instead of being clever

Listen to people that hold opposite views. Don’t assume they are necessarily wrong

Try to prove yourself wrong. If you can’t, you might be right

2. Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is the conflict generated by holding two contradictory ideas or values in your mind at the same time.

You might think of yourself as a fair person but sometimes you might not be so i.e. when you favor a friend over another more suitable candidate for a job.

When we hold contradictory ideas we fabricate explanations to protect our self-image.

Like with any other bias, we are not aware of it and can only see it in others.

You know drinking and smoking are bad for you. You see yourself as a healthy individual, yet you indulge in those vices. In order to live with that, you rationalize it by saying platitudes like life is short, I work hard, I deserve to let some steam off. When you see people around you dying from those bad habits you look the other way in order to avoid the dissonance.

How can you avoid cognitive dissonance?

Be aware of your contradictions and examine the rationalizations to see if they hold water

Ask others. If they can see your contradictions but you can’t, you might be blindsided

Change your beliefs. Not easy to do but if it’s hurting you, it must go

Change your actions. Start small and build from there. Once you create good habits life will be easier

3. Availability Bias

Fear of flying is a consequence of availability bias. There are over 100.000 commercial flights every day and only a handful of accidents every year. Aviation is clearly the safest form of transport and yet about 10% of the population suffer from fear of flying.

We never see in the news the 36 million flights that land safely at their destination year in, year out, all we see is the few instances when something goes wrong.

Because only the bad news is available, we get a distorted view of reality and no amount of rationality can overcome that bias. After 9–11 many people that used to fly started to commute by car, which killed more than the attacks. Talking about wrong decisions.

The news is a big source of availability bias. In order to get your attention and keep you glued to the screen, they use persuasion techniques like fear and only show the most salient aspects (usually negative) of reality.

How to avoid availability bias?

Stop watching the news. Realize that what you see is not all there is. Look for sources of information that contradict your initial perception

Pause and reflect. Don’t have knee-jerk reactions. The world is not ending anytime soon. All problems are solvable

Become a contrarian. Most people suffer from availability bias, by swimming against the current you’ll be more aware of what’s going on

Listen to both sides. Avoid group-think, question your beliefs and challenge the group

4. Sunk cost fallacy

When you have money or time invested in a project you’ll continue to pour resources into it even if it’s clear it’s a sinking ship.

You’ve been with your boyfriend for 5 years. He is a jerk and he’ll never make you happy, yet, you double down on him and push for the wedding because you don’t want all those years to go to waste, right? In order to save 5 years, you could waste the rest of your life.

You invest in Bernie Madoff’s portfolio, you lose 50%, yet you keep pouring money in to turn it into a win.

When it becomes evident that you’ve made a mistake you must cut your losses and run. Don’t suffer for what you’ve lost, be happy for all you’ve saved.

Conclusion

We are irrational creatures 90% of the time. We have all sorts of biases, errors of judgment, and misperceptions.

To avoid cognitive bases, first, be aware of your own flaws. Observe your mind, question every decision, and listen to opposing views and you’ll get closer to reality.

Don’t worry about all the mistakes you’ve made in the past. Worry about all the decisions that are ahead of you.

You might see yourself as a mature, experienced person but that’s just another fallacy.

You are more stupid than you think. We all are. Open your eyes and try not to fuck up his time.