Self-serving bias feeds the ego. Don’t point fingers and fail to learn from failures. Don’t take credit where it isn’t due. Undue confidence leads to bad decisions.Negativity bias makes things seem more disastrous than they are. Do positive thinking exercises and forgive yourself of your past. Don’t forego opportunities for unreasonable fear of loss. Correspondence (FAE) bias auses us to blame others for their mistakes and external factors for our own. Judge people by the same standards used to judge yourself.Gambler’s fallacy is when we draw false conclusions from past data. Beat this by continually updating your expectations. Keep a reasonableness standard that holds to reality. Think forward, not backward.

Recap your memory

<h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">Self Improvement</h2><figure><img alt="Woman contemplating paperwork at her computer." src="https://miro.medium.com/max/500/1*n64_q8ZXq1I-_NrD7rWSHA.jpeg" width="680" height="453"><figcaption class="il im cz cx cy in io ce b gb cg ch" data-selectable-paragraph="" dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/going-through-documents-gm1137748643-303505835" class="ck ip" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Editorial Rights</a> purchased from <a href="https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/urbazon?mediatype=photography" class="ck ip" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">urbazon</a> via <a href="https://www.istockphoto.com/" class="ck ip" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">iStock Photo</a>s</figcaption></figure>It’s almost a crime that we don’t educate children on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">cognitive biases</a>. They aren’t subtle. They radically alter how we interact with the world.People are excessively hard on themselves. They hang on to ancient grievances. They make misinformed decisions in full confidence. They give themselves undue credit and perpetuate flaws. Cognitive bias can cost you time, money, jobs, and friendships. They fuel some of the dumbest decisions you’ll ever make.Here are four significant cognitive biases and how to beat them.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">Your False Confidence Kills Your Empathy</h1>Psychologist, Paul Piff, <a href="https://psychology.berkeley.edu/news/how-rich-are-different-poor" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">ran a famous social experimen</a>t using Monopoly. In dozens of iterations, scientists brought in two strangers to play against each other. They flipped a coin. The ‘heads’ player received double starting money, double bonuses when passing ‘Go’, and rolled two dice instead of one. The ‘tails’ player received no bonuses.As the ‘heads’ player inevitably began winning, scientists observed major changes in their body language. They talked louder. They raised their hands to celebrate. They hit their pieces louder on the board as they moved them. Eventually, they acted rude to the other player.When interviewed about winning, they talked about their strategies and things they’d done. They never mentioned having double money and dice bonuses. Even further, they never acknowledged those advantages were merely the result of a coin toss.Welcome to <a href="https://nymag.com/news/features/money-brain-2012-7/" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">the Self-Serving Bias.</a> We tend to overweight credit to ourselves for positive events, while underweighting negative events. In sports and video games, it’s why teammates often point fingers at each other over a loss. It’s why people forget how their privileged circumstances are.The big idea: even the most generous people are tainted by some element of self-interest. We are programmed to protect our <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">self-concept</a> and our income. It clouds reality and shrowds our own most damaging misconceptions. It’s as Upton Sinclair <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00010168#:~:text=Upton%20Sinclair%201878%E2%80%931968,on%20his%20not%20understanding%20it." rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">once said</a>, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”Embrace the truth even when it doesn’t benefit you, and it ultimately will.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">This Is The Most Studied Cognitive Bias</h1>Thousands of years ago, a hunter-gatherer walked along a trail.He was startled by a large shaking bush. He paused nervously and caught his breath while watching. He held his stance, waiting, afraid to run and draw more attention to himself. Finally, a small squirrel emerged and he let out a deep breath. His extreme caution was bred into him. Generations prior, a would-be ancestor assumed the shaking bush was a squirrel and was greeted by a tiger and his gene line ended.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias#cite_note-42" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Negativity bias</a> affects you, perhaps, more than any other bias. Put simply, negativity carries more mental weight. For example, people have a much stronger reaction to losing $50 than they do to winning $50. We are also <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.1998.17.3.295" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">significantly better</a> at recalling negative events than their positive counterparts.Negativity saved lives. Now, unfortunately, it ruins them. Monitor and counterbalance that instinct by forgiving yourself for the past and limiting your ‘disaster thinking’. One strategy is to <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/positive-psychology-exercises/" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">leverage positivity</a> exercises, such as a gratitude journal. I give two minutes to one each day and feel noticeably better.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">You Judge Others With a Special Scale</h1>If there’s an article about a man cheating on his wife, there’s invariably this condescending comment about how terrible of a person that husband is. Meanwhile, that commenter has cheated on his own wife in the past. But according to him, he and his wife were in a bad spot or he was drunk. The reason never seems to include his own character.<a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/fundamental-attribution.html" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Fundamental attribution error</a> is our tendency to ascribe behavior to someone’s attributes rather than situational factors. At my previous job, we received a human resources report of an otherwise friendly employee yelling at drivers on his morning commute. It’s safe to assume those commuters considered him a massive jerk. We later learned his wife had abruptly left him the night before and he hadn’t slept. It doesn’t excuse the behavior. But the context matters.We judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions. One way to bypass this is to reverse that dynamic: judge ourselves by our actions and others by their intentions. We are hardwired to draw snap judgments about people. When it happens, inject the question that their behavior might be something else.We are all better than the worst thing we’ve ever done. We should hope to be judged as such.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">This Fallacy Extends Way Beyond Money</h1>I’ve admittedly fallen for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy#Other_examples" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Gambler’s Fallacy</a> in its most literal sense: at a slot machine.I thought, “I’ve lost six times in a row now. I am bound to win on the 7th try.” It was laughably erroneous. If you flipped a coin and got heads 100 times, the brain assumes the chances are higher of getting tails on 101. In reality, the odds remain the same each time. You remember the past. The coin does not.One of my uncles has five daughters. He loves them dearly and is a great father. I don’t want to suggest any of those daughters were the failed pursuit of a boy. But if they were, each successive daughter had no better chance of being a boy than the previous.The bigger lesson here: don’t build conclusions out of coincidences, or attribute luck to talent. We tend to anchor decisions to the past, which is prone to high variability and unusual consistencies. Update your assumptions when dealing with a new situation. Bad decisions are usually the result of bad data.Biases pull us in so many directions. It can be confusing. The central theme: examine your assumptions. Resist your instinct to draw instant conclusions.Work on these four biases and you’ll have a higher-performing, healthier mind.<h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">Recap for your memory</h2><OL><LI>Self-serving bias feeds the ego. Don’t point fingers and fail to learn from failures. Don’t take credit where it isn’t due. Undue confidence leads to bad decisions.</LI><LI>Negativity bias makes things seem more disastrous than they are. Do positive thinking exercises and forgive yourself of your past. Don’t forego opportunities for unreasonable fear of loss.</LI><LI>Fundamental attribution error causes us to blame others for their mistakes and external factors for our own. Judge people by the same standards used to judge yourself.</LI><LI>Gambler’s fallacy is when we draw false conclusions from past data. Beat this by continually updating your expectations. Keep a reasonableness standard that holds to reality. Think forward, not backward.</LI></OL>

It’s almost a crime that we don’t educate children on cognitive biases. They aren’t subtle. They radically alter how we interact with the world. People are excessively hard on themselves. They hang…

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

It’s almost a crime that we don’t educate children on <a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases" rel="noopener nofollow">cognitive biases </a>. They aren’t subtle. They radically alter how we interact with the world.

People are excessively hard on themselves. They hang on to ancient grievances. They make misinformed decisions in full confidence. They give themselves undue credit and perpetuate flaws. Cognitive bias can cost you time, money, jobs, and friendships. They fuel some of the dumbest decisions you’ll ever make.

Here are four significant cognitive biases and how to beat them.

Psychologist, Paul Piff, <a dir="ltr" href="https://psychology.berkeley.edu/news/how-rich-are-different-poor" rel="noopener nofollow">ran a famous social experimen </a>t using Monopoly. In dozens of iterations, scientists brought in two strangers to play against each other. They flipped a coin. The ‘heads’ player received double starting money, double bonuses when passing ‘Go’, and rolled two dice instead of one. The ‘tails’ player received no bonuses.

As the ‘heads’ player inevitably began winning, scientists observed major changes in their body language. They talked louder. They raised their hands to celebrate. They hit their pieces louder on the board as they moved them. Eventually, they acted rude to the other player.

When interviewed about winning, they talked about their strategies and things they’d done. They never mentioned having double money and dice bonuses. Even further, they never acknowledged those advantages were merely the result of a coin toss.

Welcome to <a dir="ltr" href="https://nymag.com/news/features/money-brain-2012-7/" rel="noopener nofollow">the Self-Serving Bias. </a>We tend to overweight credit to ourselves for positive events, while underweighting negative events. In sports and video games, it’s why teammates often point fingers at each other over a loss. It’s why people forget how their privileged circumstances are.

The big idea: even the most generous people are tainted by some element of self-interest. We are programmed to protect our <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html" rel="noopener nofollow">self-concept </a>and our income. It clouds reality and shrowds our own most damaging misconceptions. It’s as Upton Sinclair <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00010168#:~:text=Upton%20Sinclair%201878%E2%80%931968,on%20his%20not%20understanding%20it." rel="noopener nofollow">once said </a>, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Thousands of years ago, a hunter-gatherer walked along a trail.

He was startled by a large shaking bush. He paused nervously and caught his breath while watching. He held his stance, waiting, afraid to run and draw more attention to himself. Finally, a small squirrel emerged and he let out a deep breath. His extreme caution was bred into him. Generations prior, a would-be ancestor assumed the shaking bush was a squirrel and was greeted by a tiger and his gene line ended.

<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias#cite_note-42" rel="noopener nofollow">Negativity bias </a>affects you, perhaps, more than any other bias. Put simply, negativity carries more mental weight. For example, people have a much stronger reaction to losing $50 than they do to winning $50. We are also <a dir="ltr" href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.1998.17.3.295" rel="noopener nofollow">significantly better </a>at recalling negative events than their positive counterparts.

Negativity saved lives. Now, unfortunately, it ruins them. Monitor and counterbalance that instinct by forgiving yourself for the past and limiting your ‘disaster thinking’. One strategy is to <a dir="ltr" href="https://positivepsychology.com/positive-psychology-exercises/" rel="noopener nofollow">leverage positivity </a>exercises, such as a gratitude journal. I give two minutes to one each day and feel noticeably better.

If there’s an article about a man cheating on his wife, there’s invariably this condescending comment about how terrible of a person that husband is. Meanwhile, that commenter has cheated on his own wife in the past. But according to him, he and his wife were in a bad spot or he was drunk. The reason never seems to include his own character.

<a dir="ltr" href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/fundamental-attribution.html" rel="noopener nofollow">Fundamental attribution error </a>is our tendency to ascribe behavior to someone’s attributes rather than situational factors. At my previous job, we received a human resources report of an otherwise friendly employee yelling at drivers on his morning commute. It’s safe to assume those commuters considered him a massive jerk. We later learned his wife had abruptly left him the night before and he hadn’t slept. It doesn’t excuse the behavior. But the context matters.

We judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions. One way to bypass this is to reverse that dynamic: judge ourselves by our actions and others by their intentions. We are hardwired to draw snap judgments about people. When it happens, inject the question that their behavior might be something else.

We are all better than the worst thing we’ve ever done. We should hope to be judged as such.

I’ve admittedly fallen for the <a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy#Other_examples" rel="noopener nofollow">Gambler’s Fallacy </a>in its most literal sense: at a slot machine.

I thought, “I’ve lost six times in a row now. I am bound to win on the 7th try.” It was laughably erroneous. If you flipped a coin and got heads 100 times, the brain assumes the chances are higher of getting tails on 101. In reality, the odds remain the same each time. You remember the past. The coin does not.

One of my uncles has five daughters. He loves them dearly and is a great father. I don’t want to suggest any of those daughters were the failed pursuit of a boy. But if they were, each successive daughter had no better chance of being a boy than the previous.

The bigger lesson here: don’t build conclusions out of coincidences, or attribute luck to talent. We tend to anchor decisions to the past, which is prone to high variability and unusual consistencies. Update your assumptions when dealing with a new situation. Bad decisions are usually the result of bad data.

Biases pull us in so many directions. It can be confusing. The central theme: examine your assumptions. Resist your instinct to draw instant conclusions.

Work on these four biases and you’ll have a higher-performing, healthier mind.

<ol><li>Self-serving bias feeds the ego. Don’t point fingers and fail to learn from failures. Don’t take credit where it isn’t due. Undue confidence leads to bad decisions. </li><li>Negativity bias makes things seem more disastrous than they are. Do positive thinking exercises and forgive yourself of your past. Don’t forego opportunities for unreasonable fear of loss. </li><li>Fundamental attribution error causes us to blame others for their mistakes and external factors for our own. Judge people by the same standards used to judge yourself. </li><li>Gambler’s fallacy is when we draw false conclusions from past data. Beat this by continually updating your expectations. Keep a reasonableness standard that holds to reality. Think forward, not backward. </li> </ol>

Fix These Four Mental Flaws for a Smarter, Healthier Mind

Recap your memory

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