7 Reasons Why People Believe Dumb Ideas

How can people be so stupid? Have you ever wondered how someone could mistake a dumb idea for the truth? Well, there are some scientific explanations for it. Cognitive biases are mental shortcuts used to save time and energy that cause us to perceive things differently than they actually are. From making assumptions to relying on generalizations and overconfidence, here are seven specific examples of the ways in which cognitive biases can impact our perceptions and decision-making abilities, even if we're not aware of them.

The Halo Effect?

The halo effect is a cognitive bias that could affect you when making decisions. Your decisions are affected by the perceived abilities of other people in your life. For example, if someone was described as being attractive, intelligent, and hard-working, then we would assume that person was also kind; but this isn't always true. It's possible to be attractive and mean at the same time. To avoid such biases when interviewing new employees, don't base it on physical appearance alone. Instead, check out their qualifications before forming any opinions yourself or asking others what they think about the applicant during the interview process.

The Spotlight Effect

There is a strange phenomenon where you subconsciously overrate your importance and what you have accomplished in life. Every one of us has fallen victim to this illusion, but it's nothing more than an inflated ego when put into perspective. Of course, there are narcissists out there, but chances are if you're anything like me—someone who values privacy and friendliness—then you're too busy concentrating on others to give yourself any special treatment. When researchers asked narcissistic individuals (those obsessed with themselves) to spend some time considering other people instead of their own thoughts or feelings, their egos deflated rather quickly (and happiness seemed to follow suit). But please don't take my word for it; try it yourself! Focus some energy on the next person and see how happy that makes them feel.

Confirmation Bias?

The need to hold onto what you know is called confirmation bias. This bias can make you more prone to refusing new information that conflicts with your beliefs, even if it supports those beliefs in some way. This type of thinking usually has people digging through mounds of research for anything to support their current view and ignoring anything contradictory, so they feel vindicated by the time they're done reading (even though it's only been 20 minutes). How do you avoid this? Before you commit wholeheartedly to something, take a break from your biased research session and read through everything objectively without looking at how things will benefit them just yet. There might be a different explanation! And always keep in mind that not everything needs to be black or white; people still have many shades of grey.

Clustering Illusion?

What do you see when confronted with a cluster of dots? Five, thirty, one hundred? Take my word for it and just look around. For some reason, we tend to think that the number of dots equals how many there really are. Now, take a good look at them. One hundred will seem more than thirty, and fifteen will seem less than thirty. This is called a "clustering illusion," and yes, it applies to so many other things in life than just what we see. It's when marketers want us to buy something from them; they show us all these features but leave out everything else until we feel like getting excited about spending our money on them too; this is called an information-based heuristic or cognitive bias.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

When people are incompetent, they don’t know they’re incompetent. In fact, they might feel great about their level of skill; they just lack a good foundation on which to base that feeling. Psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger first described the cognitive bias in 1999. Imagine, for example, that you’re sitting on a panel and someone asks you to evaluate a colleague’s speech. Your natural inclination is to think it was pretty solid-after all, you’ve been giving speeches for years. But if your colleague wasn't very good at delivering speeches, he or she probably would have told you so. Because your friend is smart enough to recognize his or her own weaknesses (and most people are), he or she would be unlikely to overestimate his or her ability.

Negativity Bias

Studies have shown that people tend to feel and remember negative things more than positive ones. This tendency can be particularly harmful when you're seeking feedback. For example, if your boss asked his or her employees to list three areas they wanted to improve upon in a one-on-one meeting, it's likely that everyone would say "I'm working too hard." However, if you record their responses verbatim, you'll see something different: I'm always busy, we have a ton of deadlines, etc. The point here is that people have a tendency to say what comes to mind first, rather than what is actually on their minds. If you ask for feedback but don't let them know they can give an honest answer, chances are that any negativity bias will skew their response toward negativity. To combat negativity bias, start by asking open-ended questions such as, "What do you think?"

Availability Heuristic

Unconscious thoughts start coming to mind when making decisions about how likely something is to be. These thoughts come from things that are easily quantifiable, like statistics for accidents and lottery wins. People may also get this feeling because they heard about a news story just before reading about an accident; so they think the event of their winning a lottery is more probable than being in an accident, even though neither chance is high. Learning to be aware of these types of thoughts can help minimize the effect they have on decision-making--especially during times when you're trying to decide whether or not your business venture will be successful. Just keep asking yourself. What am I missing? What else could go wrong?

Conclusion

Cognitive biases are difficult to shake, and there's no one-size-fits-all strategy for getting rid of them. The first step is to become aware of your biases. When you're consciously thinking about cognitive bias and how it can shape your opinions, you'll be more likely to remember to be extra critical when evaluating new information. In time, you might even train yourself to detect instances of bias in yourself and others before they crop up. At least, that's what scientists are trying to do with their work on cognitive bias modification, aka unlearning cognitive biases through behaviour change techniques. The bottom line: if you want a less biased opinion of reality, start by being honest with yourself about your own shortcomings.