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Understanding and Reducing Biases
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0:00
Coming up next on the passion struck podcast. Understanding that biases exist as an inherent part of our brains thinking process, we know that it's almost completely impossible to eliminate them. However, we can reduce them to the barest minimum and keep them from negatively influencing our thoughts and behaviors. Welcome to passion struck. Hi, I'm your host, John R. Miles and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips and guidance
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of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show. I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries and athletes.
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Now, let's go out there and become passion struck. Have you ever with your best intentions made a decision that turned out to be a poor or detrimental one you probably have. We've all made choices at different points in our lives that at the moment seemed right but in retrospect, we're completely short of logic and accurate reasoning. The primary reason behind these cases of poor judgment and errors in decision making is something that's known as cognitive biases.
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The term cognitive biases was first coined by Israeli psychologist Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. In the 1970s. After researching the factors that influence thoughts and decision making cognitive biases come from two words cognition and biases. Cognition refers to the mental process involved in acquiring knowledge learning, and generally all that has to do with thinking and biases defined as a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation.
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Therefore, cognitive biases are flaws in one's reasoning and thinking process that can lead to the misinterpretation of information leading to inaccurate or erroneous conclusions. We like to believe that we are always rational and logical, but the truth is that we have certain cognitive biases that directly impact our thought processes. These biases are caused by our past experiences as well as our perceptions.
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They are often just results of how our brains are wired to process information and navigate the world around us. psychologists believe that many of the biases that impact our thinking allow us to reach decisions quickly and can help us more efficiently navigate situations that we encounter everyday in life. But beyond these adaptive purposes, that cognitive biases serve, they can distort our critical thinking concepts to see connections between ideas that aren't really there and ultimately
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lead to unpalatable outcomes and hinder our personal and collective growth. Sometimes, these cognitive biases are easily recognizable in yourself and others while in other cases, they are so subtle that it will take considerable effort to notice them. Whatever the case may be taking conscious steps to recognize and minimize your cognitive biases is very important for you to expand your thinking and make more beneficial decisions in the many areas of your life and those of others.
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In today's episode, I will be taking you through the major types of cognitive biases their effects on your thought process, and how you can minimize them so that you can make better day to day decisions pay close attention as I delve into this vital topic, beginning with the question of why cognitive biases exist. Thank you for choosing passion struck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey began.
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According to a report from NPR, the human brain can process 11 million bits of information per second. Still, our conscious minds can only handle 40 to 50 bits of information per second. So to speed up decision making and make judgments more quickly. Our brains sometimes take mental shortcuts this mental shortcut is what is termed heuristic Nobel Prize winning economist and cognitive psychologist Herbert Simon introduced the concept of heuristics and psychology.
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He suggested that while we strive to make rational decisions, our judgment is subject to cognitive limitations. His findings showed that while heuristics are helpful in many situations, they can also lead to cognitive biases which pose severe problems for how we perceive and act towards other people. And in certain cases researcher and social psychologist at Stanford University. Jennifer Eberhardt writes in her book biased, where she attempts to uncover the neurological
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roots of bias that bias is a natural byproduct of the way that our brains work. This is because our brain has evolved to develop a ranking system to decide which information gets your attention and which is important enough to get stored in memory. It then subtly makes use of the assumptions based on your belief Which themselves have been influenced by social culture and environmental factors beyond your conscious awareness and control to influence your thoughts in new situations.
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In doing this, the brain creates some sort of shortcut when reaching conclusions and thereby ignores some other important information and Miss perceives them. Understanding that biases exist as an inherent part of our brains thinking process, we now know that it's almost impossible to completely eliminate them. However, we can reduce them to the barest minimum and keep them from negatively influencing our thoughts and behavior.
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So what are the impacts of cognitive biases in general, cognitive biases can significantly hinder your ability to make correct decisions restrict your problem solving skills inhibit your career performance. compromise the accuracy of your recollections hinder your ability to react in emergencies, heighten anxiety and despair and harm your relationships beyond the personal effects of cognitive biases. They have been noted to also have some real world effects.
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These disaster level cases include the loss of lives during an expedition on Mount Everest, the influence of the financial crisis that began in 2007, the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and so many more. Another significant effect of cognitive biases that needs mentioning is how it contributes to wrongful convictions. People who fit into particular descriptions and stereotypes based on gender, race, background,
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etc, that have been labeled is more prone to crime are usually the first suspects and oftentimes the only suspects when the investigation into a committed crime is ongoing. An example is the case of Lavon Bo Jones, an innocent African American man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1987 murder of a white man named Lemond, Grady Jones spent 14 years on death row before his case was re examined and he was set free.
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His initial sentence happened because the initial case that was built against him was riddled with errors, oversights and biases concerning his race and societal class Jones case is just one out of the many people who've been wrongfully convicted of crimes that they didn't commit because of the biases of their prosecutors, and not all of them have been so lucky as Lavon Jones all these examples illustrate just how critical the topic of
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cognitive biases is and how much impact it has on our lives, both as individuals and collectively as citizens of the world. So what are some of the major types of cognitive biases that we all experience? If you look up the list of cognitive biases on the internet, you will find over 150 listed types and forms however many of these are just mainly repetitions, and some are entirely unfounded with further cognitive science research on human judgment and decision making.
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This list continues to evolve, but currently 12 Major cognitive biases have the most obvious effects. These include anchoring bias. This bias occurs when people overly rely on the first piece of information or action they hear or see and anchor their thoughts and decisions on that information. Let's take for example, a car dealer who places the most attractive and expensive cars at the front of the showroom. They do this to draw the customers in but also so that they see the highest price points
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First, this is essential when customers enter the dealership they may see a luxury car that's priced at $70,000 which is way out of their price range. But the anchor is set in place every other car on the lot is going to seem cheaper in comparison. In turn, placing the anchor at a higher price point will tend to increase the willingness to pay this is because this is set as the anchor by which all other cars are compared
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to this bias may limit your ability to see a situations broader scope and available options. Next we have availability bias. This happens when people overestimate the importance of information that is immediately available to them. For example, a person might be convinced that smoking is not harmful to them because they know someone who lived up to 90 and smoked two packs a day forgetting that that person's case is just an exception.
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This bias causes a person to rely too much on a particular point of view while ignoring others and this ignorance of other relevant information can be extremely costly. Next we have the bandwagon effect. This is the tendency to believe or do the things that others believe or do essentially, it is simply going along with what is popular and not having your own unique thoughts about a situation. This bias is a major reason why in elections a person is likely to vote for a candidate
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that they think is winning. Another example occurs when more people begin listening to a particular song or musical group it becomes more probable that other individuals will also listen then we have confirmation bias. This is the tendency to pay attention only to information that backs up your preconceptions and previously held beliefs while rejecting the ones that go against them. It is a major reason why some people don't believe in a critical issue such as climate change.
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Despite the existing facts and proof this bias causes a person to be highly prone to delusion and become distant from reality. Next we have the framing effect. This bias directly influences your perception and causes you to respond to information based on how it's framed beyond its factual content. For example, if you're told by a doctor that surgery has a 90% success rate, you're more likely to opt in for it than if you were told that it had a 10% failure rate even though
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both statements connote the exact same meaning the framing effect can make you oblivious of the positives of a particular situation while magnifying the risks. Next, we have hindsight bias, which is driven by the fact that events are perceived to be more predictable after they happen. For example, if you're in a betting game, you might pick a particular team over another and your chosen team could have won.
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Because of this, you might feel like you knew all along that team was going to win and forget the factors beyond you were in play in your chosen team winning factors that could have caused them also to lose this idea that you knew what happened or was going to happen can cause overconfidence and prevent you from taking a critical look into the past and being careful enough when making future decisions to prevent unpalatable outcomes. Next we have the halo effect.
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This bias happens when your impression of one aspect of a person or thing affects your overall impression of that person or thing it causes one to attribute unverified qualities in a person based on an observed quality. For example, believing that a tall and handsome young man in a well tailored three piece suit is kind, intelligent and a great leader whereas his appearance may just be a facade and he may in fact, be a criminal kingpin, this bias causes one to be easily deceived and can cause
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you to make critical choices based on mere outlooks then we have in group bias due to our disposition as humans to favor those who we personally know or like this bias causes us to be less objective during the process of selecting hiring or choosing who to do something with. For instance, as someone in the position to recruit people into a job or position, you may find yourself choosing likeability and similitude over competence, which will inevitably
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adversely affect the productivity and value of the work. Next we have overconfidence bias. Some people are too confident about their knowledge, opinions and abilities, believing that their contribution to a decision is more valuable than it actually is. This bias can cause them to take more significant risks than they ought to and be little the ideas and opinions of others. Experts are known to be more prone to this bias than lay people because they are more convinced that they know better.
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Next we have self serving bias. This bias is an effect when a person constantly takes credit for positive outcomes, but distances themselves from any blame for negative ones. It is the idea that something good happened entirely because your efforts and adverse effects have nothing to do with you. This bias causes you to fail to acknowledge contribution of factors outside of you to the success of the project or goal while blaming external factors for negative events.
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When people are influenced by this bias. They reject the validity of negative feedback and only focus on their strengths and achievements while ignoring their faults and shortcomings. Because of this, they lose out on important lessons and fail to grow. Next we have status quo zero risk bias this is a tendency to keep things in its current state because you want to play it safe and avoid risk and loss. It is primarily driven by something known as loss aversion.
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The tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains. That is, you would rather not gain something new than take a risk that could cause you to lose something that you already had. While this bias seemingly has its advantages in keeping you from losses in the long run. It's difficult growth by making it difficult to take the leap of faith in reaching for better alternatives and more beneficial outcomes.
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As famous British adventurer, writer and businessman Edward Bear Grylls said without risk, there can be no growth. Next is the sunk cost fallacy. This is the idea that too much cost has been incurred in a venture and giving up or stopping is too late. An example of this is refusing to sell a sizable long stock position in a rapidly falling market thereby incurring yet further losses. This bias simply makes people forget that one can ever go too far in the wrong direction
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that they can't cut their losses and turn back to the right ones. So now that I've gone through those 12 major types of biases, what can you do to minimize biases? I've earlier stated that it's practically impossible to completely eliminate biases in our thinking because our thoughts will always be influenced by factors beyond us such as life experiences in our environment. However, the Good news is that there are strategies that will help us mitigate their potency and effects.
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The following are six key ways that this can be achieved. First, be aware of the bias by engaging and metacognition. The very first step to solving a problem is knowing that it exists before you can significantly minimize the effect of cognition biases on your thought process, you must first realize that they exist and make a conscious effort to identify which could influence your decisions and actions at a given time. You might ask how do I recognize biases when they happen subconsciously?
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Well, the answer lies in a concept known as metacognition in layman's terms. This simply means thinking about your thoughts. This may sound strange, but it really isn't thinking about your thoughts simply involves taking a pause whenever you're thinking and carefully reflecting on what you're thinking about to examine them for the possible influence of biases. By so doing, you will be able to understand how your mental processes work and recognize
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the flaws you previously couldn't second, acknowledge your mental limitations, the human brain is vulnerable to biases because of how it's evolved over the years. If you feel that you're no at all, and fail to admit that you might have some shortcomings in your thinking, then you will be subject to the influences of these biases. Know that every memory can be unreliable at times our recollection of an event isn't always
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accurate, and we may oftentimes find ourselves remembering things that weren't there. In the first place. Scientists have found simply prompting an eyewitness while they're testifying in court to remember more can cause them to generate details that are outrightly false, but true to the witness is actual memories. So always consider this reality so that you won't become overconfident when making decisions and get the necessary insight from others.
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Third, question your thoughts and beliefs your current thoughts and beliefs have been shaped by certain external factors. For example, you might have spent all your life believing that the earth is flat simply because your parents and teachers believed and taught you that but that doesn't mean it's truly flat. Therefore challenge your pre existing thoughts whenever you're thinking in making decisions. Ask questions like is my belief based on verifiable facts?
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Am I giving too much attention to certain factors while neglecting other important ones? Because they don't support my point of view? Is my ego getting the better of me that I'm unwilling to change my beliefs by thinking like this and asking yourself these necessary questions, you will be able to more quickly detect the underlying factors driving your biases and ultimately become a more critical thinker, an attribute essential for better decision making for seek the opinion of others
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thinking in isolation will limit your ability to consider all of the relevant factors by having a diverse group of people around you and seeking their opinions and points of view about a situation or decision that you want to make you will get better insight and see that which you can see alone. Also, they will help give your thoughts and decisions the necessary scrutiny and help expose whatever bias could possibly be influencing you when they give the opinions you've sought.
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Ensure that you don't allow pride to cause you to ignore or belittle them even if they are not what you want to hear. Listen carefully so that you will be able to get all that they have to offer. Fifth, take your time before making decisions good thinking simply takes time rash decisions are made hastily if you're forced to decide on the spot you will naturally default to certain pre existing biases but by allowing yourself enough time to carefully consider
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the situation and put into practice the earlier given suggestions you will be able to make more responsible as well as reliable decisions. This point is really as simple as it sounds and requires no further explanation. Simply give more time to your thinking process and you will be able to prevent them from being influenced by biases six consciously learn about cognitive biases this episode has provided you with substantial information pertaining to cognitive biases you can further
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help yourself by consciously getting more materials to broaden your knowledge on the topic and better equip yourself to recognize them in your own life with tools to effectively counteract them. Some books that I recommend include Daniel cannons Thinking Fast and Slow, Magnus McDaniels how our brains betray us we're off to Belize the art of thinking clearly and Albert Rutherford neuroscience and decision making as well as so many more.
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In a previous episode on freewill I showed you just how much of our actions and decisions are influenced by factors we are unaware and unconscious of today's episode has shown how imperfect our decisions can be due to the biases that influence them. The aim has been to enlighten you on these flaws in thinking so that you can be better equipped to recognize the situations where you will be vulnerable to them and take the necessary steps to minimize them. I hope you all enjoyed the show.
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I want to thank everyone who wrote in this week and especially those who joined the podcast today and listen to it. Thank you all so much. You're about to hear a preview of the Passion stroke podcast interview I did with Daniel Pink, the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his latest the power of regret looking backward, moves us forward. His other books include the number one New York time best selling books drive and to sell us human positive emotions are awesome, right?
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Positive emotions make life worth living. But you don't want to have only positive emotions. You want to have some negative emotions mixed in there because negative emotions are functional, and one of our most functional negative emotions is regret. So you don't want to extinguish it. You want to be able to harness it. And we haven't been shown how to do that. Remember, we rise by lifting others. So share the show with those that you love and care about.
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And if you found today's episode useful, please share it with somebody who can use the advice that I gave here today. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen and we'll see you next time live life passion struck
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