Watch for the correlation-and-causality trap. People have an innate desire to link cause and effect and are not beyond making up a cause for the effects they see. This creates the risk of observing a correlation—often the result of chance—and assuming causation. When you hear of a correlation, be sure to consider the three conditions: time

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In most social contexts, what individuals perceive as right or wrong depends less on fixed truths and more on the meaning, context, and logic they’ve applied, whether consciously or not. It’s incredibly useful—both relationally and for developing emotional intelligence—to try and understand why someone has adopted a particular view.

The best description of motivated reasoning I’ve ever seen comes from psychologist Tom Gilovich. When we want something to be true, he said, we ask ourselves, “Can I believe this?,” searching for an excuse to accept it. When we don’t want something to be true, we instead ask ourselves, “Must I believe this?,” searching for an excuse to reject it