The Value of Outsmarting Your Cognitive Biases
There’s something you can begin doing to increase your choices and give you more options in life.
It’s simple (not necessarily easy, but you can start now) — it’s to challenge your biases.
We all have beliefs (biases) that we believe. Beliefs are often those things we believe just because — we don’t personally know they’re true, but we believe them to be true. And it’s those beliefs that affect the choices we make and how we live our lives.
Our cognitive biases are unconscious. They’re beliefs that are running in the background of our minds, influencing how we live. Maybe we believe them because we trusted the source of the belief or because of an event or circumstance. To throw fuel on the fire, our unconscious mind filters our experiences and brings to our consciousness experiences that confirm — you guessed it — our biases, further cementing those beliefs.
If you automatically discount the perspective of those who believe differently from you, you’re likely to have a cognitive bias about those specific areas. You may fall prey to cognitive bias if you’re loyal to a particular brand when you haven’t even tried the alternatives.
It’s worth it to challenge your cognitive biases because doing so can open up to you a world of choices.
Explore your cognitive biases, starting with these questions.
- How do I know that what I know is “truth”? Did it come from a trusted caregiver or authority figure? Where am I getting information that confirms the belief?
- What if I’m wrong in my thinking? How might that change things?
- What if I could be thinking something else?
- If I believed the opposite, what would I believe?
- Does having this belief support me in my growth? How does it support my outcomes? Does it support the things that I want?
A helpful exercise is to put yourself in the shoes of someone who holds an opposing view. If you lived their experiences, listened to their news outlets, had their upbringing and their circle of friends, would your perspective be reasonable?
If you’re feeling confused, unsure of what’s true — that’s progress. When you think you know everything, it feels safe, but it’s also limiting. An element of uncertainty, a dose of honesty about how little we actually know for certain, might feel unsettling at first, but it also brings options, freedom, and choices.
I invite you to increase your choices by questioning those unconscious cognitive biases.
Thanks for listening!
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