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Camye common mistakes and pitfalls of thinking that rob us of objectivity
Cognitive distortions - is the systematic errors in human thinking, a kind of logical traps. In certain situations, we tend to act in irrational patterns, even when we think that we proceed from common sense.
© Livia Marin
So, here are 20 of the most common pitfalls of thinking that rob us of objectivity:
1. Illusion of control
People tend to overestimate their influence on events in the successful outcome of which they are interested. This phenomenon was discovered in 1975 by American psychologist Ellen Langer in the course of experiments with lottery tickets. Participants were divided into two groups: the first group of people can choose their own lottery tickets, and the members of the second group were given their non-selection. 2 days before the draw experimenters offered to participants in both groups exchange their ticket for another new lottery with more chances to win.
Obviously, the proposal has been beneficial, but those participants, who themselves choose the tickets were in no hurry to part with them - as if their ticket is a personal choice could affect the probability of winning
. 2. zero risk preference
Imagine that you have a choice: to reduce the small risk to the full zero or significantly reduce the high risk. For example, to reduce to zero the full plane crash or drastically reduce the number of car accidents. What would you choose?
Based on these statistics, it would be better to choose the second option: the mortality rate of aircraft accidents is much lower than the death rate from road accidents - with the result that such a choice will save more lives. Yet studies show that most people choose the first option: zero risk at least in some area looks reassuringly, even if your chances of becoming a victim of a plane crash
negligible. 3. Selective perception
Let's say you do not trust GM. And if the topic you are greatly concerned about, you probably read news articles about genetically modified organisms. While reading, you are more and more convinced that right: the danger is obvious. But here's the catch - it is likely that you are paying much more attention to the news, podkpelyayuschim your point of view, the arguments in favor of GMOs. So, you lose objectivity. This tendency of people to pay attention to the information that is consistent with their expectations, and ignore the rest, called selective perception.
4. Error Player
Player error often lies in wait for gamblers. Many of them are trying to find the relationship between the probability of the desired outcome of a random event and its previous outcomes. The simplest example - tossing a coin: if nine consecutive falls "tails", most people will be the next time to put on the "eagle" as if too frequent loss of "tails" increases the probability of loss. But this is not the case: in fact, the odds remain the same - 50 / 50.
5. survivorship bias
This logical trap discovered during the Second World War, but it can be caught and in peacetime. During the war, the US military leadership has decided to reduce the number of casualties among the bombers and a flat order: as a result of the fighting to find out, it is necessary to strengthen the protection to which parts of the aircraft. We began to study the planes returned and found a lot of holes in the wings and tail - these parts, and it was decided to strengthen. At first glance it looked quite logical - but fortunately, the military came to the aid of the supervisory statistician Abraham Wald. He explained to them that they almost made a fatal mistake. After all, in fact, the holes in the aircraft returned carrying information on their strong areas and not for the weak. Planes, "wounded" in other places - for example, the engine or the fuel tank - simply do not return from the battlefield
. On the principle of "survivors-wounded" is thinking now, when we're going to jump to conclusions on the basis of asymmetric information for any two groups.
6. The illusion of transparency
You are trapped in a situation where the lie is necessary. But what is difficult to do it - you think that you can see right through any involuntary movement will give your insincerity. Familiar? This "illusion of transparency" - the tendency for people to overestimate the ability of others to understand their true motives and experiences
. In 1998, psychologists conducted an experiment with students at Cornell University. Some students read the questions from the cards and responding to them, to tell the truth or lie, depending on the instructions on the card. Audiences were asked to identify when projecting lie, and speakers were asked to rate their chances vorug circle the other finger. Half liars suggested that they will bite - to really only a quarter of the students exposed. This means that the liars greatly overestimated the sagacity of their audience.
Why is this happening? Most likely, because we do know too much about yourself. And so we think that our knowledge and obvious to the outside observer. However, the illusion of transparency works in the opposite direction: we overestimate and their ability to recognize other people's lies
. 7. Effect Barnum
A common situation: a person reads and stumbles upon a horoscope. Of course, he does not believe in all these pseudo-science, but decides to read the horoscope purely for fun. But the strange thing: his description of a suitable mark accurately coincides with his own ideas about themselves
. These things happen even to the skeptics: psychologists call this phenomenon "Barnum effect" - in honor of the American showman and clever manpulyatora XIX century Finneasa Barnum. Most people tend to take a rather general and vague descriptions as accurate descriptions of their personality. And, of course, the more positive description, the more matches. This effect and are astrologers and fortune-tellers.
8. The effect of the self-fulfilling prophecy
Another cognitive bias, that runs on the hand diviners. Its essence is that does not reflect the truth of prophecy that sounds convincing, can cause people to spontaneously take steps to implement it. And in the end, a prophecy whose objective was not so much of a chance to come true, suddenly appears to be true.
The classic version of this prophecy is described in the novel by Alexander Green's "Scarlet Sails". Aigle inventor predicts little Assol that when she grows up, her prince would come on the ship with scarlet sails. Assol fervently believes in the prediction and it becomes known throughout the city. And then the girl fell in love with Captain Gray learns about the prophecy and decides to make the dream Assol. And in the end Aigle is right, though happy ending in history provided is not fabulous mechanisms.
9. The fundamental attribution error
We are inclined to explain the behavior of other people, their personal qualities and their actions - objective circumstances, especially when it comes to some blunders. For example, the other person is late for sure because of its punctuality and its delay is always possible to explain a broken alarm clock or plugs. And it's not just about the official justifications, but also of the inner vision of the situation - and this attitude prevents us from taking responsibility for their actions. So those who want to work on them, it is worth remembering the existence of the fundamental attribution error.
10. The effect of moral confidence
Well-known for his liberal views caught the journalist homophobia, the priest took a bribe, and the senator, standing up for family values, photographed in a strip bar. In these seemingly of extraordinary cases, has a sad regularity - it is called the "effect of moral credibility." If a person develops a strong reputation as "righteous" in one point, he may have the illusion that he actually sinless. And if he was so good, that little weakness will not change anything.
11. Cascade
information available Cognitive distortions that are required to successfully all the ideologues of the world: the collective belief in the idea becomes much more convincing if this idea is constantly repeated in the public discourse. We are often faced with it in conversations with grandparents: many pensioners believe the veracity of all, what is said often enough on television. But a new generation is likely to feel the effect through facebook.
12. The effect of rhyme
We instinctively tend to believe almost any judgment more reliable if it is written in rhyme - this method of persuasion used by psychologists-manipulators in the series «Mind Games». This effect is confirmed by numerous studies, where a group of people were asked to identify their level of trust in the various rhymed and unrhymed phrases. Proposals containing rhymes are much more attractive to subjects and presenting them with more confidence. For example, the phrase "What soberness conceals, spirits reveals" recognized more convincing than the argument "Sobriety hides that reveal the spirits." The effect can be triggered by the fact that rhyme facilitates cognitive processing and durable links in our subconscious, seemingly disparate parts of the proposal.
13. The effect of the armature
Many people use the first eye-catching them information and make further conclusions about something just based on it. Once a person "sets anchor," he makes the following judgment, not trying to look a little further conditional "parking space". If the test offer five seconds to estimate an approximate result of the mathematical example 1 × 2 x 3 × 4 x 5 × 6 x 7 × 8 =?, Then for lack of time most people will multiply the first few numbers, and when he saw that the figure has turned out not too big, announce the final result is very modest (average response - about 512). But if the sequence of the factors reversed 8 × 7 x 6 × 5 x 4 × 3 x 2 × 1 - the subject, make the first few steps, and seeing the result of the multiplication gets more significantly increase their forecasts for the final response (average response - about 2,250). The correct result of the multiplication - 40 320.
14. Heuristic availability
If you ask a college student: "In your school learns more students from Colorado or California?" - That his answer will most likely be based on the personal example that he can remember in a short period of time. The easier we can remember something, the more we trust that knowledge. If you ask a person a question: "We took a random word: do you think it will likely begin with the letter K, or letter is in it third in a row" - most people much faster remember words beginning with K, not words where K - the third letter, and give your answer based on this. In fact, the standard text contains twice as many words, where K is the third.
15. Stockholm Syndrome buyer
Often consciousness retroactively ascribe positive qualities of the object, which a person has already chosen and purchased and refuse which can not. For example, if you bought the computer company Apple, then you probably will not notice or significantly diminish the disadvantages of the company's computers and, conversely, increased markedly criticism of computers based on Windows. The buyer will be in every way to justify bought an expensive item, not noticing its shortcomings, even if they are significant, and his choice does not meet his expectations. This also explains the syndrome purchases on a "me in this will be much better when I grow thin».
16. The effect of the bait
If the consumer has a choice - to buy cheaper and less capacious player A or the more expensive and higher-capacity player B, who will prefer a device with a higher capacity, and someone - a low price. But if the game takes the player C, which is more expensive than A and B, and has more memory than A, but less than B, then the very fact of its existence, it increases the chances of buying the player B, and makes it a favorite among these three . This is due to the fact that the buyer sees that the model with a large amount of storage can cost less subconsciously and this affects its selection. The sole purpose of these baits - to persuade the person in favor of one of the two options. This scheme is valid not only in marketing.
17. Effect IKEA
Giving undue weight to things, the creation of which he participated consumer. Many of the items produced by the IKEA furniture store, require the buyer to build the home, and it is no coincidence: the user appreciate the product more, when it considers the result and his work. Experiments have shown that people are willing to pay more for the thing gathered himself, than the thing that does not require assembly, and considers it a high quality and reliable.
18. "hot - cold»
Biased assessment of reality, resulting from the inability to present themselves in a different state and to predict their behavior in a situation associated with this condition. For example, when a person is hot, it is difficult to understand the beauty of coolness, and when he is madly in love, he can not remember how to live without the object of passion. Such short-sightedness leads to rash actions: until we are faced with a really serious temptation, we think that in front of him is not so difficult to resist
. 19. Functional fixation
The mental block against the new approach to the object: a paper clip - for the bonding of sheets, a hammer - to hammer a nail. This distortion did not allow our minds to move away from the original purpose of objects and see their possible additional functions. A classic experiment proving this phenomenon - an experiment with a candle. The participants issued a candle, a box of matches and office keys and asked to attach the candle to the wall so that it does not drip onto the table. Few participants can "rethink" the box with buttons, make her stand for the candle, and not try to attach the candle to the wall using the buttons themselves.
20. The belief in a just world
There is quite a positive tendency to hope for the best, there is a darker side: since people are very difficult to come to terms with the fact that the world is unfair and full of accidents, they are trying to find the logic in the most absurd and terrible events. That, in turn, leads to a bias. Therefore, crime victims are often blamed for their actions that they have contributed to such behavior on the part of the offender (the classic example - an approach "is to blame" for victims of rape)
. Source: roytmaninstitute.org
© Livia Marin
So, here are 20 of the most common pitfalls of thinking that rob us of objectivity:
1. Illusion of control
People tend to overestimate their influence on events in the successful outcome of which they are interested. This phenomenon was discovered in 1975 by American psychologist Ellen Langer in the course of experiments with lottery tickets. Participants were divided into two groups: the first group of people can choose their own lottery tickets, and the members of the second group were given their non-selection. 2 days before the draw experimenters offered to participants in both groups exchange their ticket for another new lottery with more chances to win.
Obviously, the proposal has been beneficial, but those participants, who themselves choose the tickets were in no hurry to part with them - as if their ticket is a personal choice could affect the probability of winning
. 2. zero risk preference
Imagine that you have a choice: to reduce the small risk to the full zero or significantly reduce the high risk. For example, to reduce to zero the full plane crash or drastically reduce the number of car accidents. What would you choose?
Based on these statistics, it would be better to choose the second option: the mortality rate of aircraft accidents is much lower than the death rate from road accidents - with the result that such a choice will save more lives. Yet studies show that most people choose the first option: zero risk at least in some area looks reassuringly, even if your chances of becoming a victim of a plane crash
negligible. 3. Selective perception
Let's say you do not trust GM. And if the topic you are greatly concerned about, you probably read news articles about genetically modified organisms. While reading, you are more and more convinced that right: the danger is obvious. But here's the catch - it is likely that you are paying much more attention to the news, podkpelyayuschim your point of view, the arguments in favor of GMOs. So, you lose objectivity. This tendency of people to pay attention to the information that is consistent with their expectations, and ignore the rest, called selective perception.
4. Error Player
Player error often lies in wait for gamblers. Many of them are trying to find the relationship between the probability of the desired outcome of a random event and its previous outcomes. The simplest example - tossing a coin: if nine consecutive falls "tails", most people will be the next time to put on the "eagle" as if too frequent loss of "tails" increases the probability of loss. But this is not the case: in fact, the odds remain the same - 50 / 50.
5. survivorship bias
This logical trap discovered during the Second World War, but it can be caught and in peacetime. During the war, the US military leadership has decided to reduce the number of casualties among the bombers and a flat order: as a result of the fighting to find out, it is necessary to strengthen the protection to which parts of the aircraft. We began to study the planes returned and found a lot of holes in the wings and tail - these parts, and it was decided to strengthen. At first glance it looked quite logical - but fortunately, the military came to the aid of the supervisory statistician Abraham Wald. He explained to them that they almost made a fatal mistake. After all, in fact, the holes in the aircraft returned carrying information on their strong areas and not for the weak. Planes, "wounded" in other places - for example, the engine or the fuel tank - simply do not return from the battlefield
. On the principle of "survivors-wounded" is thinking now, when we're going to jump to conclusions on the basis of asymmetric information for any two groups.
6. The illusion of transparency
You are trapped in a situation where the lie is necessary. But what is difficult to do it - you think that you can see right through any involuntary movement will give your insincerity. Familiar? This "illusion of transparency" - the tendency for people to overestimate the ability of others to understand their true motives and experiences
. In 1998, psychologists conducted an experiment with students at Cornell University. Some students read the questions from the cards and responding to them, to tell the truth or lie, depending on the instructions on the card. Audiences were asked to identify when projecting lie, and speakers were asked to rate their chances vorug circle the other finger. Half liars suggested that they will bite - to really only a quarter of the students exposed. This means that the liars greatly overestimated the sagacity of their audience.
Why is this happening? Most likely, because we do know too much about yourself. And so we think that our knowledge and obvious to the outside observer. However, the illusion of transparency works in the opposite direction: we overestimate and their ability to recognize other people's lies
. 7. Effect Barnum
A common situation: a person reads and stumbles upon a horoscope. Of course, he does not believe in all these pseudo-science, but decides to read the horoscope purely for fun. But the strange thing: his description of a suitable mark accurately coincides with his own ideas about themselves
. These things happen even to the skeptics: psychologists call this phenomenon "Barnum effect" - in honor of the American showman and clever manpulyatora XIX century Finneasa Barnum. Most people tend to take a rather general and vague descriptions as accurate descriptions of their personality. And, of course, the more positive description, the more matches. This effect and are astrologers and fortune-tellers.
8. The effect of the self-fulfilling prophecy
Another cognitive bias, that runs on the hand diviners. Its essence is that does not reflect the truth of prophecy that sounds convincing, can cause people to spontaneously take steps to implement it. And in the end, a prophecy whose objective was not so much of a chance to come true, suddenly appears to be true.
The classic version of this prophecy is described in the novel by Alexander Green's "Scarlet Sails". Aigle inventor predicts little Assol that when she grows up, her prince would come on the ship with scarlet sails. Assol fervently believes in the prediction and it becomes known throughout the city. And then the girl fell in love with Captain Gray learns about the prophecy and decides to make the dream Assol. And in the end Aigle is right, though happy ending in history provided is not fabulous mechanisms.
9. The fundamental attribution error
We are inclined to explain the behavior of other people, their personal qualities and their actions - objective circumstances, especially when it comes to some blunders. For example, the other person is late for sure because of its punctuality and its delay is always possible to explain a broken alarm clock or plugs. And it's not just about the official justifications, but also of the inner vision of the situation - and this attitude prevents us from taking responsibility for their actions. So those who want to work on them, it is worth remembering the existence of the fundamental attribution error.
10. The effect of moral confidence
Well-known for his liberal views caught the journalist homophobia, the priest took a bribe, and the senator, standing up for family values, photographed in a strip bar. In these seemingly of extraordinary cases, has a sad regularity - it is called the "effect of moral credibility." If a person develops a strong reputation as "righteous" in one point, he may have the illusion that he actually sinless. And if he was so good, that little weakness will not change anything.
11. Cascade
information available Cognitive distortions that are required to successfully all the ideologues of the world: the collective belief in the idea becomes much more convincing if this idea is constantly repeated in the public discourse. We are often faced with it in conversations with grandparents: many pensioners believe the veracity of all, what is said often enough on television. But a new generation is likely to feel the effect through facebook.
12. The effect of rhyme
We instinctively tend to believe almost any judgment more reliable if it is written in rhyme - this method of persuasion used by psychologists-manipulators in the series «Mind Games». This effect is confirmed by numerous studies, where a group of people were asked to identify their level of trust in the various rhymed and unrhymed phrases. Proposals containing rhymes are much more attractive to subjects and presenting them with more confidence. For example, the phrase "What soberness conceals, spirits reveals" recognized more convincing than the argument "Sobriety hides that reveal the spirits." The effect can be triggered by the fact that rhyme facilitates cognitive processing and durable links in our subconscious, seemingly disparate parts of the proposal.
13. The effect of the armature
Many people use the first eye-catching them information and make further conclusions about something just based on it. Once a person "sets anchor," he makes the following judgment, not trying to look a little further conditional "parking space". If the test offer five seconds to estimate an approximate result of the mathematical example 1 × 2 x 3 × 4 x 5 × 6 x 7 × 8 =?, Then for lack of time most people will multiply the first few numbers, and when he saw that the figure has turned out not too big, announce the final result is very modest (average response - about 512). But if the sequence of the factors reversed 8 × 7 x 6 × 5 x 4 × 3 x 2 × 1 - the subject, make the first few steps, and seeing the result of the multiplication gets more significantly increase their forecasts for the final response (average response - about 2,250). The correct result of the multiplication - 40 320.
14. Heuristic availability
If you ask a college student: "In your school learns more students from Colorado or California?" - That his answer will most likely be based on the personal example that he can remember in a short period of time. The easier we can remember something, the more we trust that knowledge. If you ask a person a question: "We took a random word: do you think it will likely begin with the letter K, or letter is in it third in a row" - most people much faster remember words beginning with K, not words where K - the third letter, and give your answer based on this. In fact, the standard text contains twice as many words, where K is the third.
15. Stockholm Syndrome buyer
Often consciousness retroactively ascribe positive qualities of the object, which a person has already chosen and purchased and refuse which can not. For example, if you bought the computer company Apple, then you probably will not notice or significantly diminish the disadvantages of the company's computers and, conversely, increased markedly criticism of computers based on Windows. The buyer will be in every way to justify bought an expensive item, not noticing its shortcomings, even if they are significant, and his choice does not meet his expectations. This also explains the syndrome purchases on a "me in this will be much better when I grow thin».
16. The effect of the bait
If the consumer has a choice - to buy cheaper and less capacious player A or the more expensive and higher-capacity player B, who will prefer a device with a higher capacity, and someone - a low price. But if the game takes the player C, which is more expensive than A and B, and has more memory than A, but less than B, then the very fact of its existence, it increases the chances of buying the player B, and makes it a favorite among these three . This is due to the fact that the buyer sees that the model with a large amount of storage can cost less subconsciously and this affects its selection. The sole purpose of these baits - to persuade the person in favor of one of the two options. This scheme is valid not only in marketing.
17. Effect IKEA
Giving undue weight to things, the creation of which he participated consumer. Many of the items produced by the IKEA furniture store, require the buyer to build the home, and it is no coincidence: the user appreciate the product more, when it considers the result and his work. Experiments have shown that people are willing to pay more for the thing gathered himself, than the thing that does not require assembly, and considers it a high quality and reliable.
18. "hot - cold»
Biased assessment of reality, resulting from the inability to present themselves in a different state and to predict their behavior in a situation associated with this condition. For example, when a person is hot, it is difficult to understand the beauty of coolness, and when he is madly in love, he can not remember how to live without the object of passion. Such short-sightedness leads to rash actions: until we are faced with a really serious temptation, we think that in front of him is not so difficult to resist
. 19. Functional fixation
The mental block against the new approach to the object: a paper clip - for the bonding of sheets, a hammer - to hammer a nail. This distortion did not allow our minds to move away from the original purpose of objects and see their possible additional functions. A classic experiment proving this phenomenon - an experiment with a candle. The participants issued a candle, a box of matches and office keys and asked to attach the candle to the wall so that it does not drip onto the table. Few participants can "rethink" the box with buttons, make her stand for the candle, and not try to attach the candle to the wall using the buttons themselves.
20. The belief in a just world
There is quite a positive tendency to hope for the best, there is a darker side: since people are very difficult to come to terms with the fact that the world is unfair and full of accidents, they are trying to find the logic in the most absurd and terrible events. That, in turn, leads to a bias. Therefore, crime victims are often blamed for their actions that they have contributed to such behavior on the part of the offender (the classic example - an approach "is to blame" for victims of rape)
. Source: roytmaninstitute.org