Great question! Let’s explore a little bit about how our brains function.
What is a cognitive bias?
A cognitive bias is an unconscious thinking pattern. It happens because our brain processes information through filters such as our personal beliefs, past experiences and our likes and dislikes. These thinking patterns influence what we pay attention to, what we remember about past decisions and events, and what sources we trust. Researchers have catalogued over 175 cognitive biases that we may encounter.
How do cognitive biases affect us?
Our thinking patterns affect us in many ways:
- guide our decision-making
- limit our problem-solving abilities
- affect the reliability of memories
- challenge our ability to respond to crisis situations
- influence our relationships
- can cause anxiety
- lead us to draw inaccurate conclusions
- cause us to focus too much on some information and overlook other important details
Cognitive biases can’t be avoided. After all, our brain has to process information somehow. And each of us has a body of experience – our beliefs, our values, our childhood, our education, our place in the world. None of us can experience literally everything so we will have certain perspectives based on the life we have lived. So we cannot completely avoid unconscious thinking patterns. BUT, we can get better at recognising and identifying them and we can learn to bring them to a conscious level which allows us to question them and decide what we think and feel, how to act.
How can we work with cognitive biases?
- Learn – we can study cognitive biases in general and then examine which ones we personally find happening on our brain. Some ways to learn are reading, speaking to qualified professional and keeping a journal.
- Question – train ourselves to ask questions, lots of them, before we take any action. It’s true there are some situations that require an urgent and quick decision. However, most of the time, we have the time and space to engage in slow decision-making, taking time to consult a range of sources, evaluate what we know, identify the gaps and ask more questions.
- Remain Blind – where possible, we can refrain from accessing certain pieces of information in order to cut down on the chances of being influenced. An example of this could be screening for a job opening – to keep ourselves focused on the relevant information, we may choose to avoid details about gender, race or other easily stereotyped considerations.
- Use Objective Measures – to help us remain focused on the relevant details and avoid distractions, we can make use of checklists, algorithms and other tools to help us make a balanced decision.
Cognitive Bias Examples
- Mere Urgency Effect
This refers to our tendency to prioritise urgent tasks over important ones. It can leave us feeling like we’re constantly running around, putting out fires and working reactively, instead of spending our time on the things that really matter to us.As Dwight Eisenhower said “what’s important is seldom urgent, and what’s urgent is seldom important.” To help us with this thinking pattern, we can make use of planning tools to block our time, assess the importance of tasks and plan our energy to make sure we are dedicating time to the important things. - The Planning Fallacy
The planning fallacy is our tendency to underestimate the time, cost or effort required to complete a task, even if we’ve done it before. The downside to this thinking pattern is our stress can increase as we find ourselves slipping behind schedule and leaving tasks undone.A good way to overcome the stress of this cognitive bias is compile information and use it to make future planning decisions. Use tools to track time, budget, energy and use this data for more accurate and realistic planning. It’s also a good idea to try and schedule in a buffer any time we undertake a larger or new project to account for what we may have not considered yet. - Negativity Bias
Negativity bias is our tendency to be more affected by negative experiences than by positive ones. Have you ever found that bad experiences loom in your memory large and in colour, whereas you have to think harder to remember the good times? Negativity bias can lead to feeling of anxiety, listlessness, even depression as we feel like joy has been sucked out of our life.Consciously engaging in some simple daily habits can help us greatly in redirecting our thoughts and feelings towards the more positive and happy elements of our life. Engaging in a gratitude practice and meditation can have a beneficial effect on our life.
An Important Note to Conclude
I am not a medical professional and nothing in this article should take the place of qualified, professional support and advice. Some cognitive biases can be identified and worked on by ourselves and for others, we need help. Needing help, getting support, working with medical professionals – there is nothing to be ashamed about in any of this. If you are struggling, please reach out. I say and encourage this with kindness and compassion, as a person who works with a therapist and is also receiving support.
If you would like to reach out, the following organisations can help and support you:
- Lifeline: 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au
- Beyond Blue: 1300 22 46 36 or beyondblue.org.au
- Headspace: 1800 650 850 or headspace.org.au
- R U Ok?: https://www.ruok.org.au/
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