Group of scientists all over the world have been working on the study of the human brain and all its capabilities for many years. While they have already succeeded in explaining many phenomena associated with the brain and practically making each of us marvel at the complexity and multitasking of this organ, many mysteries remain unsolved. About some of the games that your brain plays with you, Estet-portal offers to get acquainted below. You will learn what traps of consciousness you can fall into, as well as how others around you know about such tricks of the human brain.
The human brain is capable of performing 1016 operations per second. No computer is capable of such a volume of work. But at the same time, the human brain is an extremely unreliable device.
An ordinary calculator can perform mathematical calculations a thousand times more accurately than a human. Our memories are subjective, fragmentary and changeable. Our perception and processing of information about the surrounding reality is subject to many small interferences.
Inaccuracies and errors in our perception are called cognitive distortions. They did not appear out of nowhere - each is caused by a severe evolutionary necessity. To survive, our ancestors needed to think as quickly and efficiently as possible. Our minds still tend to take the shortest route to evaluate new information. Such shortcuts to the thought path are called heuristics. On the one hand, heuristics help us make quick decisions in difficult life situations. On the other hand, each of the heuristics leads to the fact that we focus on only one aspect of a complex problem and are unable to soberly and adequately assess the environment. Here are twelve of the most common heuristics.
1. Confirmation bias
We willingly agree with those people who willingly agree with us. We go to sites that are dominated by political views close to us, and our friends most likely share our tastes and beliefs. We try to avoid individuals, groups, and news sites that might cast doubt on our position in life. The American behavioral psychologist Burres Frederick Skinner called this phenomenon cognitive dissonance. People do not like it when conflicting ideas collide in their minds: values, ideas, beliefs, emotions. To get rid of the conflict between attitudes, we unconsciously look for those points of view that get along with our views. Opinions and views that threaten our worldview are ignored or rejected. With the advent of the Internet, the effect of confirmation bias has only intensified:
2. Distortion in favor of own groupThis effect is similar to confirmation bias. We tend to agree with the opinions of people we consider members of our group and reject the opinions of people from other groups. It is a manifestation of our most primitive tendencies. We strive to be at one with the members of our tribe. At the level of neurobiology, this behavior is associated with the neurotransmitter oxytocin. This is a hormone of the hypothalamus, which has a powerful effect on the psycho-emotional sphere of a person. Immediately after birth, oxytocin is involved in shaping the relationship between mother and child, and more broadly helps us form strong bonds with people in our circle. At the same time, oxytocin makes us suspicious, fearful, and even dismissive of strangers. It is a product of evolution, in which only those groups of people survived, who successfully interacted with each other within the tribe and effectively repelled the attacks of outsiders. In our time, the cognitive bias in favor of our own group makes us unreasonably appreciate the capabilities and merits of close people and deny the presence of such in persons we personally do not know.
3. Rationalization after purchase
Remember the last time you bought something you didn't need, didn't work, or was just too expensive? You must have convinced yourself for a very long time that you did the right thing. This effect is also known as Stockholm Buyer Syndrome. This is a defense mechanism built into each of us, forcing us to look for arguments to justify our actions. Unconsciously, we strive to prove that the money was well spent. Especially if the money was big. Social psychology explains the effect of rationalization simply: a person is ready to do anything to avoid cognitive dissonance. By buying something unnecessary, we create a conflict between the desired and the actual. To relieve psychological discomfort, the real has to be passed off for a long time and carefully as the desired.
4. Player effect
Referred to in scientific literature as player error or false Monte Carlo inference. We tend to assume that many random events depend on previous random events. A classic example is coin tossing. We flipped the coin five times. If the eagle fell out more often, then we will assume that the sixth time should fall out tails. If it comes up tails five times, we will think that heads must come up the sixth time. In fact, the probability of getting heads or tails on the sixth toss is the same as on the previous five: 50 to 50. Each subsequent coin toss is statistically independent of the previous one. The probability of each of the outcomes is always 50%, but on an intuitive level, a person is not able to realize this. The effect of the player is superimposed underestimating the return of the value to the average value. If tails still fell out six times, we begin to believe that something is wrong with the coin, and that the system's extraordinary behavior will continue. Then the effect of deviation towards a positive outcome begins - if we have been unlucky for a long time, we begin to think that sooner or later good things will begin to happen to us. We experience similar feelings when starting a new relationship. Each time, we believe that this time we will do better than the previous attempt.
5. Probability negation
Few of us are afraid to ride in a car. But the thought of flying at an altitude of 11,400 meters in a Boeing causes an inner thrill in almost everyone. Flying is an unnatural and somewhat dangerous occupation. But at the same time, everyone knows that the probability of dying in a car accident is much higher than the probability of dying in a plane crash. Various sources put the odds of dying in a car accident as 1 in 84, and the odds of dying in a plane crash as 1 in 5,000 or even 1 in 20,000. This same phenomenon makes us constantly worry about terrorist attacks, when in fact we should be afraid of falling down stairs or food poisoning. The American lawyer and psychologist Cass Sunstein calls this effect probability negation. We are not able to correctly assess the risk or danger of this or that occupation. To simplify the process, the probability of risk is either ignored completely, or it is assigned a decisive importance. This leads us to consider relatively harmless activities as dangerous and dangerous activities as acceptable.
6. Selective Perception
Suddenly, we begin to pay attention to the appearance of some thing, phenomenon or object that we did not notice before. Let's say you bought a new car: everywhere on the streets you see people in the same car. We begin to think that this car model has suddenly become more popular. Although in fact we just included it in the framework of our perception. A similar effect occurs with pregnant women who suddenly start noticing how many other pregnant women are around them. We begin to see a significant number for us everywhere or hear a song we like. It's like we've ticked them off in our minds. Then the confirmation bias we have already considered is added to the selectivity of perception. This effect is known in psychology as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. The term was coined in 1994 by an unnamed visitor to the Pioneer Press forums in St. Paul. Twice in a day he heard the name of the German radical Red Army Faction founded by Andreas Baader and Ulrika Meinhof. Few people are able to catch themselves on the selective perception of reality. Since we are positively bombarded with the names of German terrorists, then some kind of conspiracy is brewing somewhere! Because of this cognitive distortion, it is very difficult for us to recognize a phenomenon as a mere coincidence ... although it is a coincidence.
It means there is a conspiracy somewhere! Because of this cognitive distortion, it is very difficult for us to recognize a phenomenon as a mere coincidence ... although it is a coincidence.
It means there is a conspiracy somewhere! Because of this cognitive distortion, it is very difficult for us to recognize a phenomenon as a mere coincidence ... although it is a coincidence.7. Status Quo Effect
People don't like change. We tend to make decisions that will lead to the preservation of the current state of affairs or to the most minimal changes. The effect of deviation towards the status quo is easy to see in both economics and politics. We stick to routine, bureaucracy, political parties, we start chess games with the most proven moves and order pizza with the same toppings. The danger is that the potential damage from the loss of the status quo is more important to us than the potential benefit from a new state of affairs or an alternative course of events. This is the approach that holds all the conservative currents in science, religion and politics. The most obvious example is the American reform of health care and patient protection. Most people in the US are for free (or at least cheap) healthcare. But the fear of losing the status quo led to
8. Negativity effect
We pay more attention to bad news than to good news. And the point here is not that we are all pessimists. In evolution, the right response to bad news was far more important than the right response to good news. The words "this berry is delicious" could be ignored. But the words "saber-toothed tigers eat people" were not recommended to be ignored. Hence the selectivity of our perception of new information. We view negative news as more credible and are highly suspicious of people who try to convince us otherwise. In our time, the crime rate and the number of wars are lower than at any time in the history of mankind. But most of us readily agree that the situation on Earth is getting worse and worse every day. Related to the negative effect is the notion of fundamental attribution error. We tend to explain the actions of other people by their personal characteristics, and our own behavior by external circumstances. This is again due to evolution and selective perception of reality. It was much more important for our ancestors to receive negative information about unreliable or openly dangerous members of the society and respond quickly to it than to adequately assess their own behavior.
9. Majority effect
Man is a collective being. We like to be like everyone else, even if we ourselves are not always aware of it or openly express our nonconformism. When it comes time to massively choose a favorite or winner, individual thinking gives way to group thinking. This is called the effect of joining the majority or the effect of imitation. This is why professional political scientists have such a negative attitude towards election polls. The results of the polls are quite capable of influencing the results of the elections: many voters tend to change their minds in favor of the side that won the poll. But it is not only about global phenomena like elections - the effect of the majority can be observed both in the family and in a small office. The imitation effect is responsible for the dissemination of behaviors, social norms and ideas among groups of people, regardless of whether what motives or grounds these ideas, norms and forms have. The unconscious tendency of a person to conformity and the cognitive distortions associated with it were demonstrated in 1951 in a series of experiments by the American psychologist Solomon Asch. The students gathered in the audience were shown cards with images and asked questions about the length of the lines on the images. Only one student in each group was a real participant in the experiment. All the rest were dummies, deliberately giving the wrong answer. In 75% of cases, real participants agreed with the deliberately wrong opinion of the majority.
The students gathered in the audience were shown cards with images and asked questions about the length of the lines on the images. Only one student in each group was a real participant in the experiment. All the rest were dummies, deliberately giving the wrong answer. In 75% of cases, real participants agreed with the deliberately wrong opinion of the majority.The students gathered in the audience were shown cards with images and asked questions about the length of the lines on the images. Only one student in each group was a real participant in the experiment. All the rest were dummies, deliberately giving the wrong answer. In 75% of cases, real participants agreed with the deliberately wrong opinion of the majority.
10. Projection effect
We are very familiar with our thoughts, values, beliefs and convictions. Still, we spend 24 hours a day in the company of ourselves! Unconsciously, we tend to believe that other people think in exactly the same way as we do. We are confident that the majority of those around us share our beliefs, even if we have no reason for this. After all, projecting your way of thinking onto other people is very easy. But without special psychological exercises, it is extremely difficult to learn how to project the thoughts and views of other people onto oneself. This cognitive bias often leads to a similar false consensus effect. We not only believe that other people think like us, but we also believe that they agree with us. We tend to exaggerate our typicality and normality, and with them we overestimate the extent to which others agree with us. Not so many people share the views of cults or extremist organizations. But the members of the radical groups themselves are sure that the number of their supporters is in the millions. It is the projection effect that makes us confident that we can predict the outcome of a football match or an election.
11. Current Moment Effect
It is very difficult for a person to imagine himself in the future. Without special training, we are unable to predict the further development of events, lower our expectations accordingly, and adjust our behavior. We agree to immediate pleasure, even if it portends the greatest pain in the future. This gives rise to the momentum effect, also known as the discount repricing effect. Economists are seriously concerned about this effect: most of the problems of the world financial system follow from the tendency of people to prefer short-term benefits to benefits in the distant future. People are willing to spend money and extremely reluctant to save for a rainy day. Also, the current moment heuristic is well known to nutritionists. In 1998, American scientists conducted a study "Hunger Prediction:
12. Anchor effectWhen we receive new information, we correlate it with the data we already have. This is especially true for numbers. The psychological effect in which we choose a single number as an anchor and compare all new data to it is called the anchor effect or the anchoring heuristic. A classic example is the cost of a product in a store. If the item is discounted, we compare the new price ($119.95) with the old price tag ($160). The cost of the goods themselves is not taken into account. The whole mechanism of discounts and sales is built on the anchor effect: only this week, 25% discount, if you buy four pairs of jeans, you will get one pair for free! The anchoring effect is also used for compiling restaurant menus. Next to super-expensive positions, there are specially indicated (comparatively!) Cheap ones. At the same time, we are not reacting to the price of the cheapest items, but to the difference in price between a salmon steak on an asparagus podium and a chicken cutlet. Against the background of a steak for 650 rubles, a cutlet for 190 seems to be a completely normal phenomenon. Also, the anchor effect appears when the choice is given three options: very expensive, medium and very cheap. We choose the middle option, which, compared to the other two options, seems the least suspicious.
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