In the final part of our series we will examine 3 ways to overcome your cognitive biases.
Let’s dive in.
1.) Recognize the Bias (brief pause) Our emotions are continually affecting our
thought process below the level of our awareness. The most common of these emotions being the
desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. By allowing these emotions to guide our thinking,
we latch onto ideas that soothe our ego and release tension. This pleasure principle in
our thinking is the cause of all cognitive biases. You must recognize this. And if you
think you are somehow immune to cognitive biases, that is simply an example of the pleasure
principle in action. What we’ve got to do is recognize their existence and watch to
see how they continually operate inside of us. From there, we can begin to identify such
irrationality in others and begin to see this as a reflection of ourselves.
2.) Beware of the Cause (brief pause) -Some of these emotions that affect our thinking
are often brought about by something external. Let’s look at trigger points from our early
childhood as an example.
We are most vulnerable in our early childhood. Our relationship with our parents and our
environment has a greater impact on us the farther back in time we go. These vulnerabilities
remain buried deep inside our mind and sometimes we try to repress the memories of these influences.
But later in life a person or event will trigger a memory of these experiences and with it
comes a powerful release of chemicals, also known as emotions, that are associated with
the memory.
The great danger here is misreading the present moment and reacting to something that has
happened to us in our past. We will create conflict and mistrust that only strengthens
the wounds from the past. We will carry these wounds with us and project or overlay them
into the present moment. This strips away our ability to have new, fresh experiences.
But if we can detach ourselves in the middle of such an attack and contemplate the possible
source, we begin to see how these memories from our past have locked us into these patterns
of thinking. This is a massive step in the right direction and if we can do this, we
are much closer to limiting the control these biases have on our daily lives.
3.) Explore Your Rational Self (brief pause) -
The final tactic we can use to overcome our cognitive biases involves the exploration
of rational self. There are three strategies in particular we can use to do this
First, we must know ourselves thoroughly. We must commit to a realistic appraisal of
ourselves and our weaknesses. The moment we become aware of how this irrationality operates
inside of us is the moment it loses its control. We’ve got to catch our emotional self in
action so we can explore that part of who we are. By doing this we can learn to know
and value what marks us as individually different and release those parts of us out into the
world.
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Secondly, we can increase our reaction time. Whether that means we type that angry text
message but don’t send it, or we step out of a heated argument to put together a more
rational response, the longer we can resist reacting the more mental space we have for
actual reflection. This takes practice and repetition but the reward of a more rational
response is certainly worth the effort.
Lastly, we’ve got to find the optimal balance of thinking and emotion. We can’t separate
the two as they are completely intertwined. The ancient Greeks used a beautiful metaphor
to describe this relationship of thinking and feeling: the rider and the horse. The
horse is our emotional nature. It has tremendous amounts of energy and power and is always
compelling us to move forward. But the horse can’t be guided without a rider. Without
a rider, the horse is wild and untamed. Well, the rider is our thinking self. Through training
and practice the rider learns to hold the reigns and guide the powerful horse in the
direction it wants to go. Now, the once untamed horse can take the rider to places that the
rider would’ve never been able to reach alone and vice versa. One without the other
is useless, but together they empower each other to do things they’d never thought
of achieving alone. Just as the rider and the horse must work together, our thoughts
and emotions must do the same. We must consider our actions beforehand but once we have decided
what to do we’ve got to loosen the reigns and allow the horse to take us where we’ve
trained it to go.
Drop a like if you enjoyed the cognitive bias series and feel free to leave video recommendations