The Art of Thinking Clearly

Rolf Dobelli 

The author addresses the small mistakes in our thinking processes that we should notice and change to start making better choices.

The overconfident self

Studies show that people generally think highly of themselves and are overconfident in various spheres of life. Often people incorrectly associate success to their capability and feel responsible for it but consider failures to be caused by external factors. Getting an honest friend to give you their frank opinion on your strengths and weaknesses can help you through this.

Is everything under our control?

The illusion of control often offers people hope. The belief that you are in control of certain situations which in reality you are not, enables you to handle sufferings or obstacles better. Apart from this, we are also quite overconfident about our predictions. It’s better to channel our energy on things we can control and be careful while making conjectures.

The “herd instinct”

Ever noticed that when someone starts applauding, you join along? The phenomenon of social proof makes you feel accepted and correct when you emulate the behaviour of those around you. Such behavioural traits were embedded in our ancestors who mimicked others for survival and are still rooted in us. Today, this “herd instinct” makes you believe a particular idea to be better when you notice more people following it, like in fashion. Often we also change our opinions for the feeling of inclusion. This kind of social proof called groupthink can be noticed when you swallow your opinions to avoid being the one disputing the commonly accepted decisions and challenge the group unity. 

Interpretations aligned with beliefs 

Quite often we understand and accept new information in such a manner that our prior conclusions about certain things don’t change. We are all victims of this common confirmation bias that leads us to find and connect with like-minded people which helps to further strengthen our beliefs. Being aware of this bias, we should try to seek different opinions and confirmations to form balanced convictions.

Comparison deciding value

We tend to rely on comparisons while evaluating the worth of things known as the contrast-effect. The inclination to comparison is what makes something seem more desirable and valuable. The idea of scarcity also leads us to misjudge the value of things  and businesses use it to lure customers with phrases like “today only” or “only while supplies last” by creating a sense of urgency. Such biases can be dealt with effectively by judging value solely based on a product’s cost and benefits.

Exotic over relevant 

Usually, entertaining and exciting news overpower significant and credible ones and hence you find it easier to remember the plot of a movie than a few items on your shopping list. This is because we need the information to form meaningful stories before making sense. Such behaviour can be dangerous in the medical field and doctors are advised to thoroughly examine the case before jumping into quick conclusions which we too can practise.

Selective and short attention span

Our focus is very limited and we mostly miss things that happen outside its scope. Also, external factors influence what we focus on because when we are given a string of information, we focus on either the first or the last bit, leaving out what’s in between. When we are influenced by what is heard first, it’s called the primacy effect, but if our judgements were made in the past, the recency effect controls what we remember and retain, depending on how recently we gained the information.

The “Halo effect”

When a single quality of a person creates either a negative or positive impression that overpowers everything else, it’s called the halo effect. The unreasonable effect of beauty that affects our judgement is very common and scientific consensus show that attractive people are more favoured. This however, can lead to stereotyping when we all use easily noticeable features to create opinions. We also succumb to the liking bias whereby we connect easily with people who mirror our feelings and like us. 

Choices and feelings affect decision-making 

We presently live in a world that offers a plethora of options for anything, making the selection process hard and exhausting. People find it unable to make decisions when faced with numerous choices, resulting in decision fatigue and ultimately give up. To overcome such tough scenarios, you should learn to be satisfied with a “good” choice than striving for the “best”. When we let our emotions control the decision making we limit ourselves and also prevent us from making wise choices. Hence it’s better to make rational decisions by weighing the pros and cons of what’s at hand.

It’s thus essential that we understand the self, how we think and function so that necessary changes can be made to avoid common fallacies. 

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