Cognitive Biases, What Does It Mean?

I am doing a personal study on Cognitive Biases right now. The first thing that stood out to me as I considered the topic was that, to me, the word bias has a negative connotation to it as it is often used to denote non-fact-based ideas. "Your opinion is biased because you believe this".

Your brain is a powerful biomechanical machine but it does have limitations. Cognitive Biases help your brain to simplify the information it has to process. Another good example is a "rule of thumb," as they allow you to quickly process information and reach conclusions using the least amount of brainpower.

A long time ago I started writing a list of things I know to be true. This list was basically my way of keeping track of the rules that I had decided, through contemplation and failure, would become automatic triggers for specific situations.

An example of one is "The conception and birth of a child is never a bad thing". In this instance, I decided that no matter who or what the situation, my best course of action was to respond with joy, not a concern.

I have simplified the processing of that general situation, allowing for the consistent rapid response, requiring limited brain processing power, and all due to cognitive biases. Unforntually I lost this list due to an unrecoverable hardware crash several years ago but I still remember many of them and they still shape my interactions with the world and people around me.

What I found as I researched the topic is that this type of bias can be divided into several specific types. The number of these subcategories ranges from six to twenty depending on who you ask. I will post a link at the end of this article to a website that has broken it down into nineteen specific types and provides simple animated videos to explain them.

When it Goes Wrong.

We are all only human and as humans, our brains are hard-wired to utilize cognitive biases. Where it often goes wrong is when the information we use to power them is flawed and we are not able to see it due to one bias or another.

These biases are also exploited by some, as a way to manipulate the thinking or beliefs of others. This happens so often and is so subtle that we don't even know it is happening.

The Good News.

Our brains are extremely powerful and we can tap into that power with some education and hard work, to reduce the frequency that our thought and actions are influenced in a negative way.

The first step, as I see it, is education. If we don't know that these processes are occurring then we won't know how to protect them from misuse and bad information.

The second step, and arguably the hardest, is developing the ability to objectively assess your ideas and beliefs. This is so hard because it requires the bridling of these natural biases so that you start to reprogram them. This takes work, a lot of work.

In the future, as my understanding of this topic grows, I hope to get into each of the subtypes, but that is for another day.

If you are interested in pursuing the concept yourself the below link is a good starting point.

https://academy4sc.org/topic-category/cognitive-biases/