Cognitive effect. Cognitive Distortions: Thinking Errors and Helpers of Charlatans

The only thing that prevents us from reaching the limit of our capabilities is our own thoughts. We are our own worst enemies.

Usually the process is figuratively represented as a leisurely climb up the stairs, step by step. In fact, it consists of jumps and is more like jumping between floors on a trampoline. In my life, such leaps occur due to changes in the very way of thinking: I look back and evaluate the whole picture as a whole, I change my attitude towards something. By the way, such moments happen infrequently, they are scattered over time.

To cope with the flow of information and external stimuli that hits our brain, we unconsciously begin to think in stereotypes and use heuristic, intuitive methods for solving problems.

Writer Ash Read likened the heuristic to a bike lane for the mind, which allows it to work without having to maneuver between cars or risk getting hit. Unfortunately, most of the things that we think we take completely deliberately are actually taken unconsciously.

The big problem is that we think according to heuristic patterns when faced with an important choice. Although in this situation, on the contrary, deep thinking is necessary.

The most harmful heuristic patterns are those that prevent us from seeing the path to change. They change our perception of reality and push us to take long stairs when we need a springboard. We offer you a list of five cognitive distortions that are killing your resolve. Overcoming them is the first step towards change.

1. Confirmation bias

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Only in an ideal world are all our thoughts rational, logical and unbiased. In reality, most of us believe what we want to believe.

You might call it stubbornness, but psychologists have another term for this phenomenon: confirmation bias. This is the tendency to seek and interpret information in a way that confirms an idea that you hold close to your heart.

Let's give an example. In the 60s, Dr. Peter Wason conducted an experiment in which subjects were shown three numbers and asked to guess the rule known to the experimenter that explained this sequence. These numbers were 2, 4, 6, so subjects often proposed the rule “each subsequent number increases by two.” To confirm the rule, they offered their own sequences of numbers, for example 6, 8, 10 or 31, 33, 35. Everything seems to be correct?

Not really. Only one out of five subjects guessed the real rule: three numbers in ascending order of their values. Typically, Wauseon students would come up with a false idea (adding two every time) and then search only in that direction to get evidence to support their assumption.

Despite its apparent simplicity, Wason's experiment says a lot about human nature: We tend to seek only information that confirms our beliefs, not information that disproves them.

Confirmation bias is inherent in everyone, including doctors, politicians, people creative professions and entrepreneurs, even when the cost of a mistake is especially high. Instead of asking ourselves what we are doing and why (the most important question), we often become biased and rely too much on initial judgment.

2. Anchor effect

The first decision is not always the best, but our mind clings to the initial information that literally takes over us.

The anchoring effect, or anchoring effect, is the tendency to greatly overestimate the first impression (anchor information) during decision making. This is clearly evident when estimating numerical values: the estimate is biased towards the initial approximation. Simply put, we always think relative to something rather than objectively.

Research shows that the anchoring effect can explain everything from why you don't get what you want (if you initially ask for more, the final number will be high, and vice versa) to why you believe stereotypes about people whom you see for the first time in your life.

An illustrative study by psychologists Mussweiler and Strack showed that the anchoring effect works even with initially implausible numbers. They asked participants in their experiment, divided into two groups, to answer the question of how old Mahatma Gandhi was when he died. And first, each group was asked an additional question as an anchor. The first: “Did he die before he was nine years old or after?”, and the second: “Did this happen before he was 140 years old or after?” As a result, the first group assumed that Gandhi died at the age of 50, and the second - at 67 (in fact, he died at the age of 87).

The anchor question with the number 9 caused the first group to give a significantly lower number than the second group, which started from a deliberately inflated number.

It is extremely important to understand the significance of the initial information (whether it is plausible or not) before making a final decision. After all, the first information we learn about something will affect how we treat it in the future.

3. The effect of joining the majority

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The choice of the majority directly influences our thinking, even if it contradicts our personal beliefs. This effect is known as the herd instinct. You have probably heard sayings like “You don’t go to someone else’s monastery with your own rules” or “When in Rome, act like a Roman” - this is precisely the effect of annexation.

This bias can lead us to make bad decisions (for example, going to see a bad but popular movie or eating at a questionable establishment). And at worst it leads to groupthink.

Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs in a group of people within which conformity or the desire for social harmony leads to the suppression of all alternative opinions.

As a result, the group isolates itself from outside influence. Suddenly it becomes dangerous to disagree and we become our own censors. And as a result, we lose our independence of thinking.

4. Survivor Mistake

Often we go to another extreme: we focus exclusively on stories of people who have achieved success. We're inspired by Michael Jordan, not Kwame Brown or Jonathan Bender. We praise Steve Jobs and forget about Gary Kildall.

Problem this effect is that we focus on 0.0001% successful people, and not on the majority. This leads to a one-sided assessment of the situation.

For example, we may think that being an entrepreneur is easy because only successful people publish books about their businesses. But we know nothing about those who failed. This is probably why all sorts of online gurus and experts have become so popular, promising to reveal “the only path to success.” You just need to remember that the path that worked once will not necessarily lead you to the same result.

5. Loss aversion

Once we have made our choice and are on our way, other cognitive distortions come into play. Probably the worst of these is loss aversion, or the endowment effect.

The loss aversion effect was popularized by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who discovered that we would rather avoid even a small loss than focus on the benefits we might receive.

The fear of a small loss can keep a person from participating in the game, even if a fabulous win is possible. Kahneman and Tversky conducted an experiment with a very ordinary mug. People who didn't have it were willing to pay about $3.30 for it, and those who did have it were willing to part with it for only $7.

Consider how this effect might affect you if you... Are you afraid to think outside the box for fear of losing something? Does the fear outweigh what you can gain?

So, there is a problem. Where is the solution?

All cognitive distortions have one thing in common: they arise from an unwillingness to take a step back and look at the whole picture.

We prefer to work with something familiar and do not want to look for mistakes in our plans. Positive thinking has its benefits. But if you make important decisions blindly, you're unlikely to make the best choice possible.

Before making a big decision, make sure you are not the victim of cognitive biases. To do this, take a step back and ask yourself:

• Why do you think it is necessary to do this?
• Are there any counterarguments to your opinion? Are they wealthy?
• Who influences your beliefs?
• Do you follow other people's opinions because you truly believe in them?
• What will you lose if you make this decision? What will you buy?

There are literally hundreds of different cognitive biases, and without them our brains simply could not function. But if you don’t analyze why you think this way and not otherwise, it’s easy to fall into stereotyped thinking and forget how to think for yourself.

Personal growth never comes easy. This hard work, to which you need to devote yourself wholeheartedly. Don't let your future suffer just because not thinking is easier.

Cognitive biases are errors in thinking or patterned biases in judgment that occur systematically in certain situations. Cognitive distortions are an example of evolutionarily developed mental behavior.
Some of them serve an adaptive function in that they promote more efficient actions or faster decisions. Others seem to stem from a lack of appropriate thinking skills, or from the inappropriate application of previously useful skills.

There's no end to the mistakes we make when processing information, here are 10 of the most common ones.

10. Confirmation effect

Confirmation effect manifests itself in the tendency to seek or interpret information in a way that confirms what a person believes. People strengthen their ideas and opinions by selectively collecting evidence or distorting memories. For example, I think there are more medical emergencies on the day of the full moon. I find out that there were 78 conversions on the next full moon day, this confirms my belief, and I don't look at the number of conversions on the rest of the month. The obvious problem here is that this error allows inaccurate information to be passed off as truth.
Returning to the above example, let's assume that on average there are 90 emergency room calls per day. My conclusion that 78 is above normal is wrong, and yet I fail to notice it, and do not even consider the possibility. This mistake is very common and can have dangerous consequences if decisions are made based on false information.

9 Availability heuristic

Availability heuristic based on vivid memories. The problem is that people tend to remember vivid or unusual events more easily than everyday, mundane ones. For example, plane crashes receive a lot of attention in the media. No car accidents. However, people are more afraid of flying airplanes than driving cars, even though statistically airplanes are safer transportation. This is where the media plays a role, rare or unusual events such as medical errors, animal attacks and natural disasters always cause a lot of noise, as a result people feel that these events have a higher probability of happening.

8 The illusion of control

The illusion of control is the tendency of people to believe that they can control or at least influence events over which they have no control. This error may result in a tendency to gambling and belief in paranormal phenomena. In psychokinesis studies, participants are asked to predict the outcome of a coin toss.
With a regular coin, participants will guess correctly 50% of the time. However, they do not understand that this is a result of probability or pure luck and instead perceive their correct answers as evidence of their control over external events.

Fun fact: When playing dice in casinos, people roll the dice harder when they want a high number and softer when they want a low number. In reality, the strength of the roll does not determine the outcome, but the player believes that he can control the number that comes up.

7 Planning error

Planning error is the tendency to underestimate the time required to complete a task. Planning error actually comes from another error, errors of optimism, which occurs if a person is overly confident in the outcome of planned actions. People are more susceptible to the planning fallacy if they have not solved similar problems before, because we judge based on past events. For example, if you ask a person how many minutes it will take to walk to the store, he will remember and give an answer close to the truth. If I ask how long it will take to do something that you have never done before, such as writing a dissertation or climbing Mount Everest, and you have no such experience, because of your innate optimism, you will think it will take less time than in fact. To avoid this mistake, remember Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even if you take Hofstadter's Law into account.

Fun fact: “realistic pessimism” is a phenomenon where depressed or overly pessimistic people make more accurate predictions about the outcome of a task.

6 The error of restraint

The error of restraint- the tendency to exaggerate the ability to resist some temptation or the “ability to control impulse”, usually refers to hunger, drugs and sex. The truth is that people do not control intuitive impulses. You can ignore hunger, but you can't stop feeling it. You may have heard the saying, “the only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it,” sounds funny, but it’s true. If you want to get rid of hunger, you must eat. Controlling impulses can be incredibly difficult and requires great self-control. However, most people tend to exaggerate their ability to control themselves. And most drug addicts say that they can “quit any time if they want,” but in reality this is not the case.

Fun fact: Unfortunately, this misconception often has serious consequences. When a person values ​​his ability to control his impulses too highly, he often tends to expose himself to more temptation than necessary, which in turn contributes to impulsive behavior.

5. The phenomenon of a just world

The phenomenon of a just world- this is a phenomenon when witnesses of injustice, in order to rationalize their experience, try to find something in the actions of the victim that could provoke this injustice. This eases their anxiety and makes them feel safe; if they avoid doing such things, this will not happen to them. In fact, it is gaining peace of mind by blaming the innocent victim. An example is a study conducted by L. Carli from Wellesley College. Participants were told two versions of a story about a man and a woman. Both versions were the same, but at the very end, the stories were different: in one ending, the man raped the woman and in the other, he proposed to marry him. In both groups, participants described the woman's actions as inevitably predetermining the outcome.

Interesting fact: there is an opposite phenomenon: Cruel World Theory - with an abundance of violence and aggression in television and the media, viewers tend to perceive the world as more dangerous than it really is, showing excessive fear and taking various protective measures.

4. Contribution effect

Contribution effect assumes that people will demand more for something than they would pay to acquire it. This idea is based on the hypothesis that people value their possessions highly. Of course, this estimate is not always wrong; for example, many things have sentimental value or may be "priceless" to a person, but if I buy a coffee cup today for one dollar and tomorrow demand two, I have no justifiable reason for doing so. This often happens when people sell a car and want to get more than it is actually worth.

Interesting fact: This misconception is associated with two theories: “loss aversion”, which states that people prefer to avoid losses rather than gain, and the “status quo” idea, which states that people dislike change and avoid it whenever possible.

3. Self-esteem error

Self-esteem error occurs when a person attributes positive outcomes to internal factors and negative outcomes to external factors. Good example This is due to school grades, when a student receives a good grade on a test, he considers this to be a merit of his intelligence or his diligent study. When he gets a bad grade, he attributes it to a bad teacher or poorly written assignments. This is very common, people regularly take credit for their successes while refusing to accept responsibility for failures.

Interesting fact: if we evaluate the achievements of other people, the situation changes dramatically. When we find out that the person sitting next to us has failed an exam, we look for an internal reason: he is stupid or lazy. Likewise, if they get a perfect grade, they are just lucky or the teacher likes them more. This is known as the fundamental attribution error.

2. Cryptomnesia

Cryptomnesia- a distortion in which a person mistakenly “remembers” that he came up with something - a thought, idea, joke, poem, song. An imaginary event is mistaken for a memory. There are many suspected causes of cryptomnesia, including cognitive impairment and poor memory. However, it should be noted that there is no scientific evidence for the existence of cryptomnesia.
The problem is that the information received from people subject to this distortion is scientifically unreliable: perhaps it was deliberate plagiarism, and the victim is simply justifying himself.

Interesting fact: false memory syndrome is a contradictory phenomenon in which a person and his relationships with the outside world are under the influence of false memories, which are perceived by the object itself as actually occurring events. Various memory recovery therapies, including hypnosis, and sedatives are often blamed for the occurrence of such false memories.

1. The Blind Spot Fallacy

The Blind Spot Fallacy- the tendency not to admit one's own mistakes. In a study conducted by Emilia Pronin at Princeton University, participants were told about various cognitive biases. When asked how susceptible they themselves were to them, they all said less than the average person.

In psychology there is often such a concept as "cognitivism".

What is it? What does this term mean?

Explanation of the term

Cognitivism is direction in psychology, according to which individuals do not simply react mechanically to external events or internal factors, but use the power of reason to do this.

His theoretical approach is to understand how thinking works, how incoming information is deciphered and how it is organized to make decisions or perform everyday tasks.

Research is related to human cognitive activity, and cognitivism is based on mental activity rather than behavioral reactions.

Cognition - what is it? in simple words? Cognitive- a term denoting a person’s ability to mentally perceive and process external information.

Concept of cognition

The main concept in cognitivism is cognition, which is itself cognitive process or a set of mental processes, which includes perception, thinking, attention, memory, speech, awareness, etc.

That is, processes that are associated with information processing in brain structures and its subsequent processing.

What does cognitive mean?

When describing something as "cognitive"- what do they mean? Which one?

Cognitive means relating in one way or another to cognition, thinking, consciousness and brain functions that provide introductory knowledge and information, the formation of concepts and the operation of them.

For a better understanding, let's consider a few more definitions directly related to cognitivism.

A few example definitions

What does the word "cognitive" mean?

Under cognitive style understand the relatively stable individual characteristics of how different people think and understand, how they perceive, process and remember information, and the way an individual chooses to solve problems or problems.

This video explains cognitive styles:

What is cognitive behavior?

Human cognitive behavior represents thoughts and ideas that are inherent to a greater extent in a given individual.

These are behavioral reactions that arise to a certain situation after processing and organizing information.

Cognitive component- is a set of different attitudes towards oneself. It includes the following elements:

• self-image;
• self-esteem, that is, an assessment of this idea, which can have a different emotional coloring;
• potential behavioral response, that is, possible behavior based on self-image and self-esteem.

Under cognitive model understand a theoretical model that describes the structure of knowledge, the relationship between concepts, indicators, factors, observations, and also reflects how information is received, stored and used.

In other words, it is an abstraction of a psychological process that reproduces key points in the opinion of a given researcher for his research.

The video clearly demonstrates the classic cognitive model:

Cognitive perception- this is an intermediary between the event that occurred and your perception of it.

This perception is called one of the most effective ways combating psychological stress. That is, this is your assessment of the event, the brain’s reaction to it and the formation of a meaningful behavioral response.

A phenomenon in which an individual’s ability to assimilate and comprehend what is happening is limited external environment, called cognitive deprivation. It includes a lack of information, its variability or chaos, and lack of order.

Because of it, obstacles arise to productive behavioral reactions in the world around us.

So, in professional activity Cognitive deprivation can lead to mistakes and interferes with effective decision making. And in Everyday life may result from false conclusions about surrounding individuals or events.

Empathy- this is the ability to empathize with a person, to understand the feelings, thoughts, goals and aspirations of another individual.

It is divided into emotional and cognitive.

And if the first is based on emotions, then the second is based on intellectual processes, the mind.

TO the most complex types learning include cognitive.

Thanks to it, the functional structure of the environment is formed, that is, the relationships between its components are extracted, after which the results obtained are transferred to reality.

Cognitive learning includes observation, rational and psychonervous activity.

Under cognitive apparatus understand the internal resources of cognition, thanks to which intellectual structures and systems of thinking are formed.

Cognitive flexibility is the brain's ability to move smoothly from one thought to another, and to think about multiple things at the same time.

It also includes the ability to adapt behavioral responses to new or unexpected situations. Cognitive flexibility It has great importance when learning and solving complex problems.

It allows you to receive information from environment, monitor its variability and adjust behavior in accordance with the new requirements of the situation.

Cognitive component usually closely related to the self-concept.

This is an individual's idea of ​​himself and a set of certain characteristics that, in his opinion, he possesses.

These beliefs can have different meanings and change over time. The cognitive component can be based both on objective knowledge and on some subjective opinion.

Under cognitive properties understand such properties that characterize the abilities of an individual, as well as the activity of cognitive processes.

Cognitive factors has an important role for our mental state.

These include the ability to analyze one’s own state and environmental factors, evaluate past experience and make predictions for the future, determine the relationship between existing needs and the level of their satisfaction, and control the current state and situation.

Cognitive impairment - what is it? Find out about this from ours.

What is “Self-Concept”? A clinical psychologist explains in this video:

Cognitive assessment is an element of the emotional process, which includes the interpretation of the current event, as well as one’s own and others’ behavior based on the attitude to values, interests, and needs.

The cognitive theory of emotion notes that cognitive appraisal determines the quality of the emotions experienced and their strength.

Cognitive Features represent specific characteristics of cognitive style associated with the individual’s age, gender, place of residence, social status and surroundings.

Under cognitive experience understand the mental structures that ensure the perception of information, its storage and organization. They allow the psyche to subsequently reproduce stable aspects of the environment and, in accordance with this, promptly respond to them.

Cognitive rigidity call the inability of an individual to change his own perception of the environment and ideas about it when receiving additional, sometimes contradictory, information and the emergence of new situational requirements.

Cognitive cognition is engaged in searching for methods and ways to increase efficiency and improve human mental activity.

With its help, it becomes possible to form a multifaceted, successful, thinking personality. Thus, cognitive cognition is a tool for the formation cognitive abilities individual.

To one of the hell common sense include cognitive biases. Individuals often reason or make decisions that are appropriate in some cases but misleading in others.

They represent an individual's biases, biases in assessment, and a tendency to draw unjustified conclusions as a result of insufficient information or unwillingness to take it into account.

Thus, Cognitivism comprehensively examines human mental activity, explores thinking in various changing situations. This term is closely related to cognitive activity and its effectiveness.

You can learn how to deal with cognitive biases in this video:

We are accustomed to considering ourselves thoroughly rational beings, capable of foreseeing any force majeure and completely controlling everything that happens to us. However, according to psychologists, every person is at the mercy of irrational prejudices and stereotypes, which sometimes force him to act contrary to his own benefit, while the “master of his life” himself, when making this or that decision, often does not even realize what determines his choice. So what really makes us act the way we do?

1. Affective heuristics

This phenomenon can be called a kind of filter of emotions and feelings through which a person sees the surrounding reality. For example, if three words “court”, “port” and “cake” flash on the computer screen for 1/30 of a second, and you feel hungry, you will only notice the word “cake”, because it will be emotional significant - this is evidenced by the results of one of the experiments conducted by psychologists.

2. The anchoring effect

The essence of the phenomenon is that when making forecasts regarding any numerical value people tend to name numbers that are close to the numerical data they previously received. Let's say, during a discussion of wages between a job applicant and an employer, the one who first voices his numbers gets an advantage - both parties will evaluate further proposals based on the first option.

Lee Thompson / © Andrew A. Nelles / For The Chicago Tribune

“Most people believe that they should not be the first to speak up about their desired pay,” explains Professor Lee Thompson from Northwestern University, “but our study, like many others, proves the opposite - those who are the first to express their demands get paid more.”

3. Confirmation bias

When perceiving information, people strive to find information in it that confirms their own ideas and beliefs. Confirmation bias is one of the reasons why eyewitnesses of the same event sometimes voice directly opposite versions of what happened.

4. Observer Expectation Effect

A phenomenon very similar to confirmation bias is that our expectations can influence events without us realizing it. Thus, if a researcher expects to obtain a certain result during an experiment, he can unconsciously manipulate the course of the experiment and even unintentionally make mistakes when interpreting the data obtained so that the result corresponds to expectations.

5. Herd instinct

Almost every one of you has encountered a similar phenomenon at some point. A person's determination to accept a point of view depends on how many people hold the same views.

6. The dead zone of cognitive distortions

The inability to notice and compensate for one’s cognitive stereotypes, unfortunately, is common to quite a lot of people. “People often tend to see other people's cognitive and motivational biases, but are unaware of their own stereotypes,” says Princeton University psychologist Emily Pronin. In other words, “they see in someone else’s eye, but they don’t notice the log in their own.”

7. Distortion in the perception of one’s own choice

Once the choice is made, you are ready to protect it by all means, without noticing it weaknesses. Let's say, if your dog bit a passerby, you will probably decide that he was teasing it - after all, other dogs can be aggressive, but not yours.

8. Clustering illusion

People's unconscious desire to see patterns in chains random events this plays into the hands of the owners of gambling establishments - any casino is full of customers who are convinced that if “red” has fallen four times in a row, they need to bet everything on it.

9. Conservatism

A fairly common phenomenon that most people are susceptible to to one degree or another is the desire to maintain the original point of view, even if indisputable evidence has been received that it is wrong. A great example is that many continued to believe that our planet is flat, even when scientists proved that the Earth is spherical.

10. Conformity

The desire to behave “like everyone else” is also a very characteristic trait for many people. It can be so strong that it makes a person do absurd things if he sees others doing them. This is quite clearly shown by the experiment of psychologist Solomon Asch - during the study, volunteers were asked to estimate the size of rectangles, while independent participants were included in groups consisting of “decoy” subjects who, at the request of the head of the study, gave deliberately false answers. 75% of independent volunteers at least once agreed with the absurd opinion voiced by the rest of the group members.

11. "The Curse of Knowledge"

It is extremely difficult for those who have knowledge about a subject or issue to put themselves in the shoes of those who do not have such information. This phenomenon is perfectly shown in the series “Theory Big Bang"- the intellectual and erudite Sheldon Cooper sometimes finds it very difficult to understand his neighbor Penny.

12. Decoy effect

The phenomenon, also known as the asymmetric dominance effect, is widely used in marketing. For example, if people are offered two bottles of different sizes of soda, many will choose the smaller one, but if you add an even larger bottle as an option, the popularity of the medium-sized container among consumers will increase.

13. Effect of the value of banknotes

According to scientific research, people are more willing to part with small bills and coins than with the same amount in large bills.

14. Ignoring the expiration date

If an event is emotionally significant, a person does not pay attention to its duration. For example, people remember severe but short-term pain no worse than long-term pain.

15. Availability heuristic

Many people tend to overestimate the importance of available information - say, everyone knows about the dangers of smoking, but when discussing this, some give counterarguments, such as “my grandfather smoked three packs a day and lived to be 100 years old,” not paying attention to the fact that such cases are more likely an exception.

16. Emotional breakup

A person's emotional state significantly impairs his ability to understand people who have a slightly different state of mind - when you are happy, it is difficult to imagine how someone could be sad. This pattern also works when assessing our own actions - remembering our behavior, for example, during flirting, we often cannot understand the motives of our own actions.

17. The illusion of frequency

18. Fundamental attribution error

This curious phenomenon is present to one degree or another in every person - we attribute our own achievements exclusively to our own positive qualities, and our failures, of course, are always associated with insurmountable circumstances and vice versa - other people, in our opinion, achieve success only thanks to luck and fail because of their shortcomings.

19. Galatea effect

The expectation of success or failure largely determines the result of a person’s actions - if he has programmed himself to achieve a goal, the likelihood of success increases and, conversely, pessimism about his activities will most likely lead to its collapse.

20. Halo effect

A general positive (or negative) impression of a person, event or object often extends to its particular characteristics. For example, we subconsciously perceive people with an attractive appearance as smart people, even before we get to know them better.

21. The “difficult-easy” effect

Predictions regarding the probability of solving a problem sometimes do not correspond to its complexity. People often overestimate their ability to solve difficult problems and underestimate themselves when working on simple ones.

22. Crowd effect

In times of difficulty and uncertainty of the future, many try to adhere to the most common model of behavior among others - this phenomenon is observed, among other things, in the securities market: when changes in the value of shares or resources are coming, brokers try to ensure that their forecasts do not differ too much from the expectations of their colleagues.

23. Hindsight bias

Assessing what happened, so to speak, after the fact, people often claim that the development of events could have easily been predicted - in other words, everyone likes to be “smart in hindsight” and say: “I knew it!”

24. Revaluation of discounts

If a person has two options for receiving an advance - earlier, but less and later, but more, most likely he will choose the first option, and as the designated dates approach, this probability increases.

25. Ideomotor effect

The simplest example of this phenomenon is when some sad thought causes tears in a person, that is, the idea of ​​some action or feeling unconsciously turns into the action itself or the manifestation of the corresponding emotion. So, when a boxer remembers a fight, his hand reaches out to the jaw of an imaginary opponent, although this movement, as a rule, is not as pronounced as a real blow.

26. Illusion of control

Almost each of us has encountered an unconscious desire to control events that are simply impossible to influence. For example, football fans, when watching a match, like to give out loud “instructions” to the players, although they know that their “valuable advice” will not affect the course of the game in any way.

27. Information distortion

Some individuals tend to seek information even when they have all the information needed to take a fruitful action or make a decision. At the same time, psychologists argue that unnecessary information often only interferes with achieving the desired result.

28. In-group bias

People almost always evaluate those whom they consider members of their social group more positively than “outsiders” and vice versa.

29. Irrational reinforcement

When deciding to make additional efforts toward a goal, a person often bases it on how much work has already been put into achieving it, even if it is obvious that the goal is not worth the time and resources spent. This psychological effect is observed among auction participants when, in an effort to beat a competitor’s price, they name amounts that they are unable to pay.

30. Negative bias

Scientists have long noticed that people tend to remember negative events better and mentally return to them more often than to positive experiences. This psychological phenomenon is also characterized by an obsession with the risks of the situation and ignoring available opportunities.

31. Underestimating inaction

The preference for harmful inaction over active, but worsening, interference in the course of events is observed not only at the everyday level, but also in politics. In one of his works, American psychologist Art Markman cites as an example of this curious phenomenon the case when President Obama forced Congress to support radical health care reform. Republicans hope that the citizens of the United States will blame the Democrats who supported it for all the negative developments in the health care sector that will undoubtedly follow the adoption of the legislation, although most likely, if the decision on reform had not been made, the consequences would have been much more catastrophic.

32. Ostrich effect

Many people ignore a situation that is dangerous and threatens them with negative consequences, just like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, creating the illusion that there is no threat.

33. Distortion in favor of the result

A very common phenomenon that each of you has probably encountered is the evaluation of activities not by its objective effectiveness, but by the result. That is, if a person has won a huge amount of money in a casino, this does not mean at all that the idea of ​​surrendering to the whims of roulette can be considered brilliant. We must not forget that in life there is a place for blind chance, so it is sometimes simply impossible to predict the consequences of one or another action.

34. Over-confidence

Almost all people are firmly confident in the correctness of their judgments and assessments. How often do you hear someone talk about a 100% probability of one or another development of events and turn out to be wrong? How many times have you said the same thing and been wrong? Overconfidence is a rather dangerous phenomenon, as it forces you to take unjustified risks.

35. Over-optimism

A phenomenon similar to overconfidence manifests itself in the tendency to overly positively evaluate the personal qualities of others and the likelihood of a positive resolution of a particular problem. The inability to see all possible threats makes a person vulnerable to attackers and vicissitudes of fate.

36. Over-pessimism

As you probably guessed, this phenomenon is exactly the opposite of excessive optimism; that is, an over-pessimistic person tends to concentrate on the possible negative consequences of his or other people’s actions.

37. Placebo effect

Examples of the well-known placebo phenomenon can be found in almost every field. human activity- from medicine to trade securities. The point is that confidence in a favorable outcome can itself become its cause.

38. Planning error

The inability to understand how long it will take to solve a problem occurs among people more often than we would like. Many people tend to underestimate the amount of work and the pitfalls that may arise during its implementation.

39. Belated rationalization

Having purchased an item at a clearly inflated price, people often look for “rational” reasons for making a purchase - they convince themselves and others that they didn’t spend it in vain, that the item was worth the money, and in the end they begin to wonder how they could even do without this precious junk?

40. Fixing the installation

To understand the essence of this phenomenon, imagine that you are leading psychological experiment. You ask subjects to press one button if they see a meaningless string of letters on the screen and another if a word appears. If participants are first shown, for example, the word “water,” and then related concepts, say, “drink” or “river,” volunteers will respond to them faster than to words that have nothing to do with water. Fixation occurs even if the person is not aware of it - for example, when the stimulus providing the installation is very weak or distorted by other stimuli.

41. Inventor's Misrepresentation

The inability to adequately assess the pros and cons of their invention or innovation is inherent in many proactive and talented people, especially if the state has allocated huge funds for the inventor’s innovative project.

42. Procrastination

All inhabitants of our planet, without exception, are familiar with this phenomenon. Procrastination is nothing more than putting things off “for later,” without taking into account possible negative consequences.

43. Reactance

Many stubborn individuals tend to make decisions that are directly opposite to what others advise in order to prove their right to freedom of choice. The extreme manifestations of this phenomenon can be described in one phrase: “To spite my mother, I will freeze my ears.”

44. The illusion of novelty

This phenomenon is associated with the peculiarity of the perception of words and phrases - it often seems to people that a concept or speech pattern is new, although in fact such constructions have been used for quite a long time.

45. The illusion of reciprocity

The conviction that honesty and justice in relationships are always more important than any material or other interests.

46. ​​Regressive conservatism

Some people, coping with extreme situation with the help of emergency measures, they tend to use them even after the situation normalizes, explaining this by the effectiveness of an extraordinary solution to the problem. To make it clearer, if you get lost in the remote taiga, it is best to call rescuers (of course, if you have mobile phone or walkie-talkie), but you shouldn’t disturb them every time you find yourself in an unfamiliar area of ​​your hometown.

47. Distortion of Restraint

Overestimation of one's ability to control strong manifestations of emotions and resist various emotional impulses.

48. Salience

The phenomenon of salience (from the English salience - bulge, protrusion) lies in the fact that almost all people tend to focus their attention on the characteristic and easily recognizable features of those around them, some objects or ideas.

49. Neglect of scale

This amazing feature of our perception is most clearly demonstrated by one of the experiments of psychologists: scientists asked three groups of subjects to estimate how much they were willing to pay to save birds in places contaminated with oil waste. One group was offered to save 2 thousand birds, another 20 thousand, and a third 200 thousand. Participants in the first group decided to donate an average of $80, volunteers from the second agreed to part with $78, and in the third the average donation amount was $88. Thus, the amount of effort or amount of money that people are willing to invest in solving a problem is often completely independent of the size of the problem.

50. The illusion of the “specialist” and the “teapot”

The phenomenon of excessive confidence in the words and actions of specialists is not so rare, especially among people who tend to shift responsibility to others. If you can’t do it or decide for yourself, what could be easier than calling a professional for help and, in case of failure, blaming everything on him?

51. Selective perception

As the famous French lawyer Alphonse Bertillon said: “A person sees only what he notices, and notices what is somehow present in his mind.”

52. The illusion of one's own superiority

People talk about their successes much more readily and often than about their failures, so over time they may develop an exaggerated opinion of their own abilities.

53. Tendency to maintain the status quo

The fear of changing the existing state of affairs is close to conservatism and the so-called contribution effect - the desire to avoid losses even at the cost of missed opportunities.

54. Stereotyping

As you know, people often endow an individual or a group of individuals with certain properties without having specific information and based solely on their own prejudices. Of course, in some cases such judgments are justified, but the overuse of stereotypes can mislead a person.

55. Survival bias

Making a decision based on existing successful examples and without taking into account those with negative experience in this area - this mistake occurs quite often. For example, having before their eyes many examples of successful businessmen, some people are inclined to believe that there is nothing complicated in entrepreneurial activity and almost anyone can do it, while the number of those who tried to organize their own business and failed is not taken into account.

56. Tragedy of the Commons

When a group of people has a certain number of resources to which each member of the group has access, many tend to use them in excessive quantities without concern for safety, resulting in a conflict between the public good and personal interests. Most often, this phenomenon occurs when people master natural resources- for example, if every villager begins to use the common pasture to its fullest, the land will soon be depleted.

57. Preference for whole objects

The essence of the phenomenon is that people almost always strive to complete the work they have started, even if this does not promise any special benefits. That is why many try to eat huge portions at fast food establishments at all costs, as a result of which they gain extra pounds.

58. Zero risk preference

The desire to reduce one of the risks to zero at any cost, exposing yourself to another, more serious danger, is one of the most common cognitive errors. This indicates a person’s tendency to provide at least an insignificant result with a 100% probability if it is not possible to completely control the entire situation.

For example, some, fearing for their lives, prefer cars to airplanes when traveling, although according to statistics, people die in car accidents more people than in aircraft crashes.

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Typically, our minds use cognitive distortions to reinforce some negative emotion or a negative chain of reasoning. The voice in our head sounds rational and credible, but in reality it only reinforces our bad opinion of ourselves.

For example, we tell ourselves, “I always fail when I try something new.” This is an example of “black and white” thinking - with this cognitive distortion, we perceive the situation only in absolute categories: if we fail in one thing, then we are doomed to endure it in the future, in everything and always. If we add to these thoughts “I must be a complete loser,” it would be an example of overgeneralization—such cognitive distortion generalizes an ordinary failure to the scale of our entire personality, we make it our essence.

Here are some basic examples of cognitive biases that you should be aware of and practice by noticing them and responding to each one in a more calm and measured way.

1. Filtration

We focus on the negative while filtering out all the positive aspects of the situation. By fixating on an unpleasant detail, we lose objectivity, and reality becomes blurred and distorted.

2. Black and white thinking

With black and white thinking, we see everything either in black or white; there cannot be other shades. We must do everything perfectly or we will be failures - there is no middle ground. We rush from one extreme to another, not allowing the thought that most situations and characters are complex, composite, with many shades.

3. Overgeneralization

With this cognitive bias, we come to a conclusion based on a single aspect, a “slice” of what happened. If something bad happens once, we convince ourselves that it will happen again and again. We begin to see a single unpleasant event as part of a never-ending chain of defeats.

4. Jumping to conclusions

The other person hasn’t said a word yet, but we already know exactly how he feels and why he behaves the way he does. In particular, we are confident that we can determine how people feel about us.

For example, we may conclude that someone doesn't love us, but we won't lift a finger to find out if this is true. Another example: we convince ourselves that things will take a bad turn, as if this is already a fait accompli.

5. Pumping

We live in anticipation of a catastrophe that is about to break out, not paying attention to objective reality. The same can be said about the habit of understatement and exaggeration. When we hear about a problem, we immediately turn on the “what if?”: “What if this happens to me? What if there's a tragedy? We exaggerate the importance of minor events (say, our mistake or someone else’s achievement) or, conversely, mentally reduce an important event, until it seems tiny (for example, one's own desirable qualities or the shortcomings of others).

6. Personification

With this cognitive distortion, we believe that the actions and words of others are a personal reaction to us, our words and actions. We also constantly compare ourselves to others, trying to figure out who is smarter, better looking, and so on. In addition, we may consider ourselves the cause of some unpleasant event, for which we objectively bear no responsibility. For example, a chain of distorted reasoning could be: “We were late for dinner, so the hostess dried out the meat. If only I had rushed my husband, this wouldn’t have happened.”

7. False Inference of Control

If we feel that we are being controlled from the outside, then we feel like a helpless victim of fate. The false sense of control makes us responsible for the pain and happiness of everyone around us. "Why are not you happy? Is it because I did something wrong?”

8. False conclusion about fairness

We are offended, believing that we were treated unfairly, but others may have a different point of view on this matter. Remember, as a child, when things didn’t go the way we wanted, adults said: “Life isn’t always fair.” Those of us who judge every situation “fairly” often end up feeling bad. Because life can be “unfair” - not everything and does not always work out in our favor, no matter how much we might like it.

9. Accusation

We believe that other people are responsible for our pain, or, conversely, we blame ourselves for every problem. An example of such a cognitive distortion is expressed in the phrase: “You keep making me feel bad about myself, stop!” No one can “make you think” or force you to feel a feeling - we ourselves control our emotions and emotional reactions.

10. “I (shouldn’t) have to”

We have a list of ironclad rules - how we and the people around us should behave. Anyone who breaks one of the rules causes our anger, and we get angry with ourselves when we break them ourselves. We often try to motivate ourselves with what we should or shouldn't do, as if we are doomed to be punished before we even do something.

For example: “I need to exercise. I shouldn't be so lazy." “It is necessary”, “obligated”, “should” - from the same series. The emotional consequence of this cognitive distortion is guilt. And when we use the “should” approach towards other people, we often feel anger, impotent rage, disappointment and resentment.

11. Emotional arguments

We believe that what we feel must automatically be true. If we feel stupid or boring, then we really are. We take for granted how our unhealthy emotions reflect reality. “I feel this way, so it must be true.”

12. False conclusion about change

We tend to expect those around us to change to accommodate our desires and demands. You just need to apply some pressure or cajole. The desire to change others is so persistent because it seems to us that our hopes and happiness depend entirely on others.

13. Labeling

We generalize one or two qualities into a global judgment, taking the generalization to the extreme. This cognitive distortion is also called labeling. Instead of analyzing the mistake in the context of a specific situation, we attach an unhealthy label to ourselves. For example, we say “I’m a loser” after failing in some business.

When faced with unpleasant consequences of someone's behavior, we may attach a label to the person who behaved that way. “(S)he constantly abandons his children to strangers” - about a parent whose children spend every day in kindergarten. Such a label is usually charged with negative emotions.

14. The desire to always be right

We spend our whole lives trying to prove that our opinions and actions are the most correct. Being wrong is unthinkable, so we go to great lengths to demonstrate that we are right. “I don’t care if my words hurt you, I’ll still prove to you that I’m right and win this argument.” For many, the consciousness of being right turns out to be more important than the feelings of people around, including even those closest to them.

16. False conclusion about reward in heaven

We are confident that our sacrifices and caring for others at the expense of our own interests will definitely pay off - as if someone invisible is keeping score. And we feel bitterly disappointed when we never receive the long-awaited reward.