Knowledge of cognitive biases and the science of decision-making is supposed to improve one’s life. But there’s a risk where a person who spends a lot of time thinking or talking about something and thinks that it’s having a big impact on their life, when in reality it isn’t. One way to attempt to combat this is by explicitly thinking about times when one has applied those changes, as well as times when one hasn’t, and try to think of both good and bad outcomes. As an exercise, let everyone try to fill in the following table with experiences from their own life, and then discuss the results.
Behaved irrationally, bad results: e.g. “I really wanted something to happen so I believed it would, with these bad consequences”
Behaved irrationally, good results: e.g. “Wishful thinking motivated me and made me succeed.”
Behaved rationally, bad results: e.g. “I started wondering whether I had enough evidence to believe what I did, and became indecisive and lost my chance to act.”
Behaved rationally, good results: e.g. “I noticed that I didn’t have the necessary evidence to believe what I did, so I changed my mind and avoided a lot of trouble.”
Behavioral Analysis
Knowledge of cognitive biases and the science of decision-making is supposed to improve one’s life. But there’s a risk where a person who spends a lot of time thinking or talking about something and thinks that it’s having a big impact on their life, when in reality it isn’t. One way to attempt to combat this is by explicitly thinking about times when one has applied those changes, as well as times when one hasn’t, and try to think of both good and bad outcomes. As an exercise, let everyone try to fill in the following table with experiences from their own life, and then discuss the results.
Behaved irrationally, bad results: e.g. “I really wanted something to happen so I believed it would, with these bad consequences”
Behaved irrationally, good results: e.g. “Wishful thinking motivated me and made me succeed.”
Behaved rationally, bad results: e.g. “I started wondering whether I had enough evidence to believe what I did, and became indecisive and lost my chance to act.”
Behaved rationally, good results: e.g. “I noticed that I didn’t have the necessary evidence to believe what I did, so I changed my mind and avoided a lot of trouble.”