Avoiding Psychological Bias
in Decision Making is Real Thing! Try It.

Yes! The decisions you make in any kind of situation is according to your beliefs no matter what’s the result!

Akshay Kheveria
Aug 27, 2017 · 6 min read
Source: Google

Each of your brains creates its own myth about the universe! — Abhijit Naskar

Let’s take an example here.

Imagine you are an Entrepreneur and you are researching on a potential product which can solve a particular problem and you have a belief that it can be solved by your product. You think that the market is growing, and as a part of your research, you find information that supports your belief.

Somehow you decide that the product will do well, and you launch it, backed by a major marketing campaign.

BUT the product fails, The market hasn’t expanded, so there are lesser customers than you expected. You can’t sell enough of your products to cover their costs, and you make a loss.
Sad ??

So, whatever happened was because your decision was affected by confirmation bias. You interpret market information in a way that confirms your presumptions, instead of seeing it objectively and you made wrong decisions as a result.

Confirmation bias is one of many types of psychological biases. In this article, I’m gonna write about some common biases which you can clearly observe in yourself if there is any. And will talk about how can you improve the way you make decisions.

What the heck is Psychological Bias?

Psychologists Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky introduced the concept of psychological bias in the early 1970s.
According to the concept: Psychological bias is the tendency to make decisions or take action in an illogical way. For example, you might subconsciously make selective use of data to make a decision which can make you feel happy inside at the time of decision making but that doesn’t mean the conclusion will be positive.
Humans generally make decisions according to their beliefs instead of analyzing the situation in different dimensions and possibilities.
Psychological bias is the opposite of common sense and clear, measured judgment. It can lead to missed opportunities and poor decision making.

What is Dopamine?

Human Brain

Human brain releases a neurochemical dopamine whenever we feel good or satisfied because of something. Dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter a chemical released by neurons to send signals to other nerve cells. The brain includes several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in reward-motivated behavior.

Whenever we are making decisions in critical situations we get fooled by this chemical and make a lot of quick and bad decisions because in that case whatever data we consider subconsciously to make a decision is according to the presumptions and beliefs we have. That kinda makes you feel rewarded at the time when you make the decision.

Common Psychological Biases

1. Confirmation Bias

It causes us to pay more attention and assign greater belief to ideas that support our current beliefs. That is, we cherry pick the evidence that supports a belief we already believe and ignore evidence that argues against it.

True enough? You must have felt that now. If not, then keep reading.

2. Disconfirmation Bias

It causes us to expend disproportionate energy trying to disprove ideas that contradict our current beliefs.

The accuracy of belief shouldn’t be our only goal. Our other goal should be the validation of our pre-existing beliefs, beliefs that we’ve been building block by block into our entire lives.

3. Anchoring or focalism

This bias is a tendency to jump to conclusions, i.e to base your final judgment on information gained early on in the decision-making process.

Think of this as a “first impression” bias. Once you form an initial picture of a situation, it’s hard to see other possibilities.
A very nice example of Anchoring I read about a year ago in “Thinking Fast and Slow”.
Let’s have a ride on that:
Look at the image Below! To observe your mind in automatic mode, glance at the image below.

Source: Google

As you look at the image you make some presumptions, this is what we normally call seeing and intuitive thinking. As surely and quickly as you saw that the young woman’s hair is dark and brown, you knew she is angry. Furthermore, what you saw extended into the future. You sensed that this woman is about to say some very unkind words, probably in a loud voice. A strong feeling of what she was going to do next came to mind automatically and effortlessly. You did not intend to fathom her mood or to anticipate what she might do, and your reaction to the picture did not have the feel of something you did. It just happened to you. It was an instance of fast thinking/Anchoring or focalism bias.

Now look at the following problem:

You knew immediately that this is a multiplication problem and probably knew that you could solve it, with paper and pencil, if not without. You also had some vague intuitive knowledge of the range of possible results. Without spending some time on the problem, however, you would not be certain that the answer is not 3268. A precise solution did not come to mind, and you felt that you could choose whether or not to engage in the computation. If you have not done so yet, you should attempt the multiplication problem now, completing at least part of it.
As you’ve tried thinking, you must have felt a little stress and effort in your brain. This is slow thinking process which cannot happen without any stress or something.

And this is the problem, a lot of decisions are made by Focalism/Anchoring bias fall into the category of a fast thinking process.

4. Overconfidence Bias

This happens when you place too much faith in your own knowledge and opinions. You may also believe that your contribution to a decision is more valuable than it actually is. Yes, that’s why those people seem to be so egoistic and bad listeners!

You might combine this bias with anchoring, meaning that you make a lot of decisions very fast just because the extreme faith you have in your own knowledge and opinions.

P.S In a 2000 study, researchers found that entrepreneurs are more likely to display the overconfidence bias than the general population.

Things can be done to Improve the decision making

Now you know a lot of the ways our brain function, you may act wisely.

Psychological bias is the tendency to make decisions or take action in an unknowingly irrational way. To overcome it, look for ways to introduce objectivity into your decision making, and allow more time for it. Surround yourself with people who will challenge your opinions, and listen carefully and empathetically to their views — even when they tell you something you don’t want to hear( :D ) (Hurts your emotions/ego right? Don’t worry the result would be good!)

If you enjoyed this..

I’m writing consistently my views on psychological behavior of us, humans and the music tech intersection and evolution. You’ll be reading a lot of random but interesting stuff too. Do share/recommend this article to the people who need it and press and hold the clap button below to share the love.
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Akshay Kheveria

Written by

Founder- oJam| Creator | Creating a music tech future https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.ojam

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