Cognitive biases exist only in our heads, but they affect everything around us, including our work. Cognitive bias is full of challenge, opportunity, and opportunity. Cognitive biases are full of challenges and opportunity, but not all of them are good or bad, they are just the way they are.
Sunk Cost Fallacy
The term sunk cost fallacy describes our tendency to commit to something just because we’ve already invested resources in it-even if it would be better to give up on it.
- Commitment is important in business, but there’s a fine line between perseverance and falling prey to the sunk Cost fallacy.
How to control the sunk cost fallacy
Always reevaluate your processes in light of new evidence
- Journaling apps help you unmoor your mind from past choices
- Intuition Journal is a goal-oriented journaling app that helps users make wiser, more rational decisions
How to control the goal gradient effect
Visualize your work in ways that allow you to see how far you have to go
- Use a Kanban Board task management app for complex or long-term projects
- Consider taking the MVP approach
- Working toward smaller, more attainable goals, you’ll always feel like you’re nearing the end of some part of a project
Goal Gradient Effect
The goal gradient effect explains why we work harder to achieve our goals when they’re most closely in sight
- In user experience design, this effect inspires progress-tracking bars and other visual cues for users
- If a user knows they’re close to completing their task, they put more effort into finishing it
How to control your optimism bias
Be skeptical of your own rosy expectations for your work
- Assume projects will be more difficult and more expensive than you initially think they will
- Don’t trust your good ideas to manifest through positive thinking-be ready to fight for them
- Trust the numbers
Negativity Bias
Negativity bias is the tendency to change our thought processes and behaviors more because of negative things than positive things
- When we let the negative guide us at work, we overcomplicate challenges and miss new opportunities
- It’s detrimental to your business: Damage your reputation by reacting harshly
Confirmation Bias
The tendency to focus on new information that confirms pre-existing beliefs and trivialize anything that might challenge those beliefs
- In teams, this feeds into the false consensus effect, the phenomenon by which we tend to assume that others, including our colleagues and customers, agree with us more than they actually do
What Is Cognitive Bias?
Cognitive biases are common thinking errors that hinder our rational decision-making
- The better we understand them, the more often we can subvert them and leverage them for our own benefit
- To overcome cognitive biases, we must acknowledge that we have them and take advantage of tools that can help balance out our irrational tendencies
Cognitive Miser Theory
Our brains are lazy
- We tend to put the least amount of effort possible into problem-solving
- If we’re not consciously engaged with the details, we’re likely to take any shortcut that presents itself
- This can hurt us when we don’t have the right systems in place for handling everything that matters
Optimism Bias
Optimism bias is our tendency to overestimate the odds of our own success compared to other people’s
- This can be dangerous, leading us to waste time and resources pursuing unrealistic goals
- In business, things don’t always work out for the best, and it serves us well to know when conditions are not on our side
Anchoring Effect
The tendency to privilege the first information we encounter, even when subsequent information turns out to be more relevant or realistic
- For businesses and teams driven by metrics, the anchoring effect often manifests as an inappropriate emphasis on certain metrics over others, even if the other metrics may be more useful in meeting broader goals
How to control the anchoring effect
Be sure that you’re always reviewing data from new angles
How to Control Your Confirmation Bias
Seek out information that goes against your pre-existing beliefs
- If you think a project will succeed, go out of your way to brainstorm reasons it might not
- Better yet, solicit feedback from your team before making your opinion known
How to control your negativity bias
Track your wins
- Use a spreadsheet app, note-taking app, or digital journal to record objectives attained, new ideas realized, and positive effects your work has had on the lives of others
- Review them in meetings, share them on your company chat, and take strength from them when you’re struggling
IKEA Effect
Researchers from Harvard, Yale, and Duke have identified our tendency to assign greater value to products if we play a part in their assembly
- We’re not prioritizing the object/project as much as we are the resources we’ve put into it
- This applies to anything in which we invest creativity and labor
Control the IKEA Effect
You can do it for yourself by getting deeper in the weeds of the project you’re a part of
- For your team, use mind mapping tools
- Various stakeholders can contribute their ideas in the beginning by physically adding them to a mind map
How to control cognitive bias
Mindful and deliberate choices about how we apply our mental effort can help us establish patterns that eliminate friction and emphasize our strengths
- If we get intimate with our own biases, we stand a better chance of noticing them as they come into play and making better-informed decisions when we’ve factored them into our professional decision-making
