The blog post series ‘Better decision making’ is about learning to recognize, in ourselves and others, how emotions and group pressure can impede rational decision making and lead to short-sightedness. Such phenomena can be present in our daily lives, at social gatherings in school, in business meetings, talk shows or news reporting. Below you find a modified excerpt of the article on Stafford Global. Image by Charlyzona.
A cognitive bias is a systematic error that occurs when people process and interpret information about the world. This then impacts their decision making and behavior.
Individuals unconsciously construct a subjective reality, not solely based on objective inputs or facts, but also based on emotions and perceived group consensus. These biases often ‘start out’ as a means of simplifying information by finding shortcuts or generalizations to help navigate the world full of information overload. Unfortunately, cognitive biases can also lead to inaccurate judgements, illogical interpretations or distorted perceptions and is sometimes referred to as irrationality.
Some of the more common cognitive biases are:
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search, select, analyse, interpret and recall information that supports an existing belief or value. Individuals will ignore facts that contradict their view, and favour interpreting ambitious evidence that supports their beliefs. It is strongly displayed for deeply rooted values or on issues that are emotionally charged. Confirmation bias cannot be eliminated entirely but critical thinking skills can help mitigate and manage it, for example by forcing yourself to study the opposing viewpoint.
An example of confirmation bias can be found during elections. Individuals tend to actively seek information that casts their preferred candidate in a positive light, and the opposition in a negative light.
Authority bias
Authority bias is the tendency to give greater weight and assign greater accuracy to the opinions of a person in a position of authority, regardless of the context. This is the result of both social and cultural conditioning, which teaches that a person in authority has earned or deserves the position they are in.
An example of this is a research institute whose advice is followed without question, even though further inspection reveals this advice to be outdated or politically motivated.
Groupthink
Groupthink is a socially driven psychological bias where the need to maintain harmony within a group of people can result in dysfunctional or irrational decisions. The desire for cohesiveness can lead to group members agreeing at any cost, in order to reach a consensus with minimal conflict. As a result, decisions are made without critical evaluation or proper analysis. Since controversial issues or alternative solutions are side-lined to maintain harmony, there is a loss of independent thinking and creativity.
Emotionally charged political topics, e.g. climate change, can lead to groupthink. Within a group, members tend to converge their opinions and those voicing alternative viewpoints are looked at skeptically. In the worse case scenario they are eventually expelled from the group.
Read about 2 other types of cognitive bias in the article on Stafford Global.
IWTW recommends the social media platform X as a tool to become aware of cognitive biases. For example:
- ‘Follow’ both proponents and opponents regarding major issues such as climate, migration and wars around the world.
- Read comments below tweets.
- Judge the quality of different arguments.