Author: Bryan Lin
Editors: Hwi-On Lee, Kevin Yao
Artist: Emily Hu
Whether we believe it or not, there's no denying that our longtime-held cognitive biases greatly impact our decision-making skills. For the most part, we try to make decisions in our day-to-day lives based on pure logic and reason, but deep down in our consciousness, a large and hidden network of cognitive biases quietly influences our decisions. The reality of this is that no matter your education or intellect, we all are affected by these mental blindspots. But what exactly are cognitive biases and how can we use our rational decision-making skills to counteract them?
Cognitive biases, defined as systematic and predictable errors stemming from reliance on simplified information processing strategies, were once and largely are still vital to our survival. Seeing things happen to those around us forms our network of biases which influence our judgment in certain situations. Vincent Berthet, a researcher at the University of Lorraine, believes that cognitive biases are present in every action you take, even if you are not aware of it. An example of this occurring throughout day-to-day life would be someone believing that traveling by airplane is more dangerous than traveling by car, even though casualties caused by airplane crashes are significantly rarer than casualties caused by car accidents. Although the chances of getting into a fatal airplane accident are about 1 in 11 million (far less than the 1/5000 chance of being involved in a fatal car accident), people are still more likely to believe that airplanes are a far more dangerous form of travel than cars. This is also known as availability bias. This bias occurs because people tend to overestimate the likelihood of events that are more memorable or recently heard about, such as airplane crashes, which are highly publicized. As shown statistically, air travel is much safer than car travel (according to statistics), but the bias leads people to believe otherwise.
Rational decision-making skills are what help us make choices in situations to, hopefully, generate a better outcome. These skills are driven by key factors such as critical thinking, logical reasoning, self-awareness, and the ability to assess the risk involved in each of the choices. Hadrat Ajo, a communications specialist and writer at Pitch Labs, believes that decision-making preempts every human action and that each decision made through rational thinking results in an often desired outcome and serves the greater good. Examples of rational decision-making occurring throughout daily life may be deciding to clean up after yourself, making your caretaker’s life easier , or deciding to complete a project even though it wouldn’t be due until the following week, removing the stress of having to rush an assignment by giving yourself ample time to recheck your work. Any decision you make following the greater good is an example of you using your rational decision-making skills to improve your own life or the lives of those around you.
So if rational decisions cause the best outcomes most, if not all, of the time, why do we sometimes not make the rational choice and cause more harm to ourselves or others in the long run? The answer to this question lies in the influence of our cognitive biases and heuristics, or mental shortcuts. Knowing that a certain action in a situation would be the right thing to do, but prioritizing a quick burst of dopamine is a common example of our decision-making skills being impacted by our biases. An example of this happening in day-to-day life is opening a bag of chips before your parents say you should. Your cognitive bias would tell you to do so because your action will be rewarded with delicious snacks while your rational decision-making skills would say to wait till you are given permission. For many, the cognitive bias sings the stronger tune and they open up the chips, potentially getting berated by their parents and getting the food hidden away when they could have just waited until they could freely eat the chips. Additionally, we're not always aware of our own biases and limitations. Overconfidence in our abilities, the illusion of control, and other cognitive biases can lead us to believe we're making rational choices when we're actually being swayed by hidden influences. Overconfidence bias, for instance, leads many to overestimate their abilities because perhaps they were the best at something within their group. They might be led to believe they're above-average drivers, the fastest people around, or that they have the best writing. This inflated self-assessment can result in poor choices, from risky decisions to ill-advised career moves which your rational thinking could have told you was a bad decision. This does not mean that you cannot counteract your biases as being aware of them when you are about to make an impulsive decision can actually sway you to weigh the pros and cons and make the better choice.
The influence that our cognitive biases have on our decisions shows the importance of having strong rational decision-making skills and also actually listening to them when presented with choices. While our biases are deeply rooted in our consciousness and can be difficult to ignore, being aware of their impact is the first step. By improving our critical thinking skills, rational reasoning, and self-awareness, we can learn to make the right decisions despite our mental blindspots and help serve our long-term interests. Ultimately, the ability to recognize and counteract our cognitive biases is essential for making the right decisions in situations we face in our day-to-day lives. Though the battle against our mental blindspots may be tough, the reward of making more rational, well-informed choices is priceless.
Citations:
(PDF) Decision-Making and Cognitive Biases,
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Berthet, Vincent. “The Impact of Cognitive Biases on Professionals’ Decision-Making: A
Review of Four Occupational Areas.” Frontiers in Psychology, U.S. National Library of
Medicine, 4 Jan. 2022,
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Korteling, Johan E Hans, et al. “Cognitive Bias and How to Improve Sustainable Decision
Making.” Frontiers in Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 28 Feb. 2023,
“Cognitive Biases Can Affect Experts’ Judgments: A Broad Descriptive Model and
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