2022: Biases and Thanks

~1000 words. 4 minute read.

I was looking forward to Fridays in 2022 and not only because they usher in the weekend. No, this year I enjoyed Fridays because I wrote my LinkedIn posts about cognitive biases and their impact on decision quality. Friday seemed like particularly good timing for these, because good decisions are oh-so-helpful at work, but even more important at home.

Let’s take another look at these posts, but first I must say ‘Thank you’: I felt incredibly humbled by having more than 7,000 coworkers, friends, acquaintances, professional and personal liaisons click the ‘Follow’ button this year. Every addition to my network also added weight to my next post - with over 15,000 pairs of eyes potentially reading, I needed it to be worth your time. I hope I was able to meet expectations.
Let me say once more:
Thank you for indulging me! Thank you for your thought partnership in the digital space!

Before I share a few of my favorite posts on cognitive bias, I wanted to remind you that thanks to its algorithm, the LinkedIn newsfeed (like all digital feeds), is a steady stream of the Bubble Bias: We see mostly posts that support our views, entrenching us, narrowing our vision, diminishing our empathy for others, our potential for thinking outside the box (well, outside the bubble).

The good news is that the ubiquity of all kinds of different bubbles on social media platforms also allows us to reprogram our mental software - all it takes is finding the right posts. That means, of course, actively holding a needle to our own bubble. Hmmm. Uncomfortable.

It didn’t require the advent of social media to recognize that the disruption of mental comfort (maybe ‘laziness’ is the better word) is what makes us human.

F. Scott Fitzgerald lived from 1896 - 1940, a time when social media consisted of drinking scotch in a pub with the boys. He famously said:

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

In 2023, let’s click on some things, search for some views and opinions that we don’t agree with. Put that first-rate intelligence to the test.

Thanks to many of you, I was able to, if not completely pop my own bubble, at least to make it bigger and fill it with more opposing ideas. Once again: Thank you!

I wish us all an inspiring, bubble-expanding new year!

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Now then, a few of my favorites (click on the links for the actual post on LinkedIn. Most of these are in German):

• Confirmation Bias

  The tendency to only accept information that confirms one’s own views.

  To confirm or not to confirm?
  

• Risk Aversion

  Avoiding short-term risks at the expense of long-term gains.

  Nothing happens without risk, but without risk nothing happens.

• Halo Effect

  Assuming unknowable attributes based on known attributes.

  You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

• Clustering Bias

  Seeing alleged patterns or clusters in random information.

  Our brain's answer to information overload.

• Bandwagon Bias

  Why following is so comfortable.

  The Human Herd.

• Functional Fixedness

  Our inability to use something (tools, ideas, concepts) outside its habitual application.

  Rapunzel's weapon.

• Hot-Cold Empathy Gap

  Underestimating the impact our emotions and feelings have on our decisions.

  I bought chocolate again.

• Mere Exposure Effect

  Repeated perception alone can create positive judgement.

  The comfort in comfort-food.

There are many more, many of them well-known. I listed these, because they may offer scientific explanations for behaviors we observe in ourselves - observe, but cannot explain.

It turns out that our brain’s strength has always been the auto-pilot. Unlike with next-gen vehicles, the cost lies in turning the auto-pilot off, not on.

See you next year!