11 errors of consciousness that prevent us to make informed decisions Bashny.Net

Our brain is able to perform several billion operations per second. But he can make mistakes, lead a person to make wrong decisions.





The website tells the reader about the pitfalls of the subconscious, into which all the people, even the smart and logical.

Confirmation bias People like to disagree only with those who agree with him. Therefore, he chooses to connect people with similar tastes and Outlook on life, avoiding someone who makes you doubt your own right. Because of her prejudice thinking person ignores and rejects the fact that it can redraw its established way of thinking, and perceives only that information which "feeds" existing judgments.

The trap of comparison, or the effect of the anchor Effect of the anchor is directly connected with the human habit to compare the numbers, ignoring their real value. For example, if a person sees on the tag price of the commodity on sale, and then says, he begins to appreciate the difference between them. If it is large, then it seems that such a purchase is very beneficial, even if the price of the product is still unreasonably high.

Intergroup bias This error is most often seen because of the human need to feel part of any group. And this need in turn occurs because of the hormone oxytocin, which is responsible for the feeling of affection. In the end, the emissions of oxytocin cause a person starts to overestimate the abilities and values of their group and underestimates those who don't belong.

The effect of the moment a Person is unable to relate his "I today" with "tomorrow", and he does what he likes at the moment, preferring to shift the responsibility to the "future self". This error was confirmed in the experiment where people were asked to choose meals for the week. 74% of them chose fruits and healthy food, but when they were asked to make a choice today, 70% chose sweets and "bad" food.

The gambler's fallacy is because it attaches great importance to the already happened events, confident that they can affect his future. Often "error player" peculiar gambling people who believe that after several losses in a row luck has to stand on their side.

The effect of the transfer because it believes that all the others think the same as him. This effect is often manifested in radically-minded people who think outside of their company like-minded people there are also people who share their beliefs. However, this may not be.

Post-shopping rationalization because of this error, the person begins to justify some expensive, but unnecessary purchase. In addition, post-shopping rationalization makes people feel uplifted after they have done something outright stupid.

Effect craze If everything is constantly go on about some phenomenon or person, popular at the moment, the person begins to think that he likes that, too. For example, after the release of a new smartphone ongoing hype around it causes most people to give in and buy it.

The selectivity of the observation due to this error, the person suddenly begins to notice around something previously invisible to him. It begins to seem that "new" literally haunts him, though in reality she was just slipping from his eyes. So, after buying a new car, its owner begins to see only around a brand new car.

The effect of negativity Under the influence of this error, the person pays attention only to bad news, believing that they are very important to him. People tend to believe the sad news as a positive they seem to be too suspicious or ordinary. Today crimes and wars became less, but people continue to believe that from year to year the situation in the world is only getting worse.

Disregard of the probability of the error of our brain affects the way that many people are afraid to fly for fear of accidents. But statistics is relentless: to die in an accident can be more likely than crashing on a plane. Specifically, this error causes a person to fear death from the actions of terrorists, although he could at any moment fatally poisoned or broken neck falling off that ladder, that is, to die from a much more conventional action.

via io9.gizmodo.com/5974468/the-most-common-cognitive-biases-that-prevent-you-from-being-rational