mind traps

“In driver’s training we were taught to identify our visual blind spots and eliminate them with the help of mirrors and sensors. In life (...) we need to learn to recognize our cognitive blind spots and revise our thinking accordingly”

from Think Again by Adam Grant

baja

The converse of the halo effect is the horns effect: All perceived negative qualities correlate. If Stalin is evil, then everything he says should be false. You wouldn’t want to agree with Stalin, would you?

Eliezer Yudkowsky • Rationality

halo effect vs horns effect

Paul Venuto • feed updates

“If you can’t decide, pretend you’re deciding for a friend.” Solomon’s paradox is a robust finding that we're better at solving other people's problems than our own, because detachment yields objectivity. But research has found that viewing oneself in the 3rd person yields the same detachment and objectivity. So if... See more

the paradox of choice

The fundamental problem with an information cascade is that after a certain point it becomes rational for people to stop paying attention to their own knowledge—their private information—and to start looking instead at the actions of others and imitate them. (If everyone has the same likelihood of making the right choice, and everyone before you

James Surowiecki • The Wisdom of Crowds

The implication of these studies is that this so-called “selective exposure bias” may be pushing us into more polarised positions.

This cognitive bias can push people into more extreme ideological positions | BPS

Anchors can even influence how you think your life is going. In one experiment, college students were asked two questions: (a) How happy are you? (b) How often are you dating?

Richard H. Thaler • Nudge: The Final Edition

the anchoring effect

It makes sense that constant comparison makes us unhappy. I think back to a study I read a few years ago. When passengers board an airplane and walk through first-class on their way to their seats, passengers are then more likely to engage in acts of air rage and aggression than when they board from the middle of the plane. Subtle reminders of our... See more

Musicto Mail

The rule of reframing can look different depending on what you're dealing with. But it always involves seeing a problem from a different angle, with the goal of breaking a cycle of harmful thoughts and behavior.

Justin Bariso • Emotionally Intelligent People Use the Rule of Reframing to Change Their Perspective, Think Differently, and Reduce Anxiety

reframing

About three quarters of students are convinced that revising their answer will hurt their score. Kaplan, the big test-prep company, once warned students to “exercise great caution if you decide to change an answer.4 Experience indicates that many students who change answers change to the wrong answer.” With all due respect to the lessons of

Adam Grant • Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

first-instinct fallacy