Your brain is a pretty amazing machine.
It's a network of about 86 billion neurons that if compared to a computer, researchers
predict is capable of more than a trillion processes every second.
But…
it makes mistakes.
As much as we hate to admit it, we’re only human.
Cognitive biases are mental shortcuts we make when we’re processing information.
They’re errors in our judgement.
Let’s take a closer look...
For me, building anything is a labour of love...but our labour may just lead to love.
The IKEA effect is the tendency to place a disproportionately high value on things you
assemble yourself–think sets of lego, origami or, of course, IKEA furniture.
In a series of studies where participants assembled those three things, they saw their
creations as similar in value to the creations of experts, and they mistakenly thought others
would share their opinion.
Researchers found the effect only occurred when the creations were fully assembled, and
didn’t have an impact when things were partially assembled or built and then destroyed.
Perhaps our love of DIY creations comes from us investing our time in them…
But how much time?
The planning fallacy is where we underestimate the time it takes to complete a task.
Researchers suggest we underestimate our own task-completion times, but not the time it
would take other people.
One study asked participants to estimate how long it would take to do certain tasks, like
shop for a gift, format document or prepare a meal.
They found that participants who didn’t unpack the tasks down into bite size pieces
were more biased, and greatly underestimated how long tasks would take.
So when you break things down, they’re easier to digest.
Unless, of course, you’re still trying to digest how much you spent on that IKEA furniture.
Post purchase rationalisation is where you persuade yourself, using a rational argument,
that a purchase was good value.
Like spending $480 on the ah-pp-lar-oh loveseat.
With two footstools.
Most of us refuse to accept that we could have made a mistake, so we convince ourselves
that we’ve made a right decision.
I mean, it even comes with two footstools.
And the availability cascade is a self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation.
So if you repeat something for long enough, something that most other people are saying,
it will become true.
If you hear that IKEA is a great cultural institution and you read that IKEA is a great
cultural institution, you will probably come to believe that IKEA is a great cultural institution.
It’s the idea that we follow the crowd based on what’s socially acceptable.
I mean, IKEA is a great cultural institution.
That loveseat even came with two footstools.
Sometimes we don’t realise that these cognitive biases have affected our behaviour–errors
in our judgement often happen subconsciously.
I for one, have committed so many planning fallacies I still haven’t finished most
things I said I would do.
Or replied to any of your emails.
Sorry.
Let me know down in the comments, or on Twitter, if you’ve discovered any of these biases
creeping in your behaviour.
And if you don’t already, subscribe to BrainCraft!
I have a new, brainy video out every Thursday.