Biases Prevent The Right Choices
In the post, we will dicuss on bias, or on Fifteen Biases That Prevent us From Knowing Ourselves And Making The Right Choices.
Biases significantly hamper our ability to perceive ourselves truthfully and make ideal decisions. Confirmation bias tilts our interpretation of information to align with preexisting opinions. While self-serving bias shields us from admitting our flaws by attributing success to internal factors and failure to external ones. The halo effect clouds our judgment by allowing initial positive impressions to influence unrelated perceptions. Anchoring bias locks us onto primary information and closes our eyes to other perspectives. These biases, among others like availability heuristics and hindsight bias, create blind spots in our self-awareness and decision-making process. These highlight the importance of self-examination and critical thinking to navigate through them effectively.
In other words, most of us are experts in the art of sighting the speck in our neighbor’s eye while ignoring to log in on our own. However, knowing how to recognize one’s weakness to bias is the best way to open oneself to the world’s realities and receive excellent advice. Know oneself better and ultimately be more in control of one’s choices and decisions. Here is a list of the most common faults and how to eliminate them.
1- Bias – Stick To Your First Impression
Anchoring bias consists of using a single piece of information or impression as a reference. Generally, the first received. This prevents us from equally considering other options or locks us into a character.
The Solution: Collect as many first impressions from different people on a given subject as possible to deactivate your own anchoring.
2- Attribute Your Successes Only To Yourself And Your Failures To Others
Self-indulgence bias is the tendency to believe that our successes are entirely our own doing but that our failures are only due to factors that are independent of us. This results in a poor assessment of our real capabilities.
The Solution: systematically looking for the external factors of our successes and the internal causes of our failures allows us to identify our areas for improvement.
3- Persevere in Error
The escalation bias in commitment leads to perseverance on a clearly unsuitable path out of the refusal of the idea of having wasted time and effort for nothing.
The Solution: Postulate that all learning never wastes time and that it can be reused in the future in any context. It will even be a differentiating factor with the same diploma.
4- Bais – Overvaluing or Undervaluing Your Skills
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes the propensity of incompetent people to be unaware of their shortcomings because they cannot identify them. Its result is perplexity, which affects the most competent, who are more exposed to doubt regarding their legitimacy.
The Solution: Admit that others are more lucid about us than we are and rely on their feedback. When the exact words come back, it is because they have some truth. Also, ask yourself what the real reason is that we are racing for diplomas.
5- Conform To The Choices Of The Majority
Conformity bias is a natural inclination to favor collective thinking, which is the guarantor of the group. It reflects a real confidence in the tendencies of the majority, which are perceived as being better, and also governs the last-minute choices of the undecided.
The Solution is not to see yourself as different if you do not conform to the norm but rather as an active minority who contributes to the group’s balance in its diversity.
6- Being Influenced By The Way Things Are Presented
This is the framing bias widely exploited by marketing professionals. He favors an option not for its intrinsic interest but for its attractive package or because it has been highlighted.
The Solution: Recognize how the presentation appealed to us, experience its pleasure, and then check that the content corresponds to our needs.
7- Oppose Automatically Any Suggestion
Reactance bias or rebound effect is a reaction to what is perceived as an attempt to influence us and an attack on our freedom. Any suggestion, even sincere, is considered manipulative and encourages us to take the opposite view.
The Solution: Knowing that we can also be manipulated in this way! Please realize that the consequences of our decisions are much more important to us than whether or not we have met the supposed expectations of a third party.
8- Bais -Overvaluing The Opinion Of Authority Figures
Authority bias encourages people to think that the expert’s word is infallible and should not be called into question, even if we do not understand it. Our parents are often our first authority figures and remain so for a long time!
The Solution is to listen to the doubts that emerge within us, whoever we are talking to, and not be afraid to express them, debate them constructively, or seek another authority figure with a divergent opinion.
9- See Only What You Believe
Confirmation bias leads us only to consider information that supports our beliefs. It can make us discredit or reject all those not belonging to our frame of reference.
The Solution: Have fun pretending that we consider information that seems unsuitable to us valid and worthy of interest, then imagine what reality would be like seen from this absurd angle.
10- Place More Value On What Is Familiar To Us
Advertising relies on the mere exposure effect. When exposed to an image or an idea, we become attached to it and naturally integrate it into our universe as the first default choice.
The Solution: Examine the recurring options within those around you. If they resemble your choice, ask yourself which one you would adopt if you were operating in an environment offering other options.
11- Preferring The Status Quo To The New And Vice Versa
The status quo bias, like the pro-innovation bias, encourages one not to choose an option based on its relevance but on an a priori basis simply because of its conservative or innovative character.
The Solution: If you are more conservative, ask yourself what fear change arouses in you, and if you are more pro-innovative, make sure the excitement of change alone does not influence you.
12- Bias – Refuse to See Disturbing Realities
The ostrich bias leads us to avoid and ignore information that we displease or that contradicts our desires. It leads to taking reckless risks without even planning a backup plan.
The Solution: Talk as much as possible about the projects around us and the way we plan to carry them out. Agree to act as if the objections were truly justified and observe our perspective from this new angle.
13- Believing The Negative Is More Accurate Than The Positive
The negativity bias would be a reflex for conserving the species governed by a need for permanent vigilance. Excessive optimism is seen as dangerous, and we feel wiser in skepticism. This leads to reluctance in his decisions.
The Solution: Anticipate the worst that could happen if choosing the optimistic option led to failure and what harm could be caused by just dreaming.
14- Adapt To Your Sociocultural Environment
Social comparison bias is a form of self-censorship that prevents us from conceiving perspectives other than those that dominate our environment. More powerful than conformity bias, it profoundly affects our identity and future.
The Solution:
- Take an interest in and expose yourself to as many cultures as possible.
- Approach different environments.
- Draw inspiration from people who have ignored this censorship.
15- Restrict Yourself To Zero Risk
Zero risk bias is a way of rejecting options that we know are advantageous on the pretext that they present an element of risk, even minimal. This attitude amounts to preferring the certainty of loss to the ambiguity of doubt and gives the illusion of control.
The solution: When faced with a risky choice, build as many contingency plans and safeguards as possible, or remember that popular wisdom says you can’t make an omelet without breaking an egg.
Additional
Believing That You Already Know Bias
The illusion of knowing is a generalization from our past experiences to new, similar experiences. Our impression of recognizing the situation prevents us from verifying our conviction’s relevance and makes us ignore new facts.
The Solution: Check that our information is up to date, even if we are convinced of its validity. Expect a change and look for it.
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