The top cognitive biases you don’t know about and how to avoid them | Lightning talk

Let’s start with the Dunning Kruger effect and if the picture didn’t give it away already. This means believing that you’re overqualified for the duties and responsibilities of your position. Thinking that you are better than what you really are.

However, if you are like me the best way to learn new ideas is by understanding their opposite concept. So the best way to understand the Dunning Kruger effect is by presenting the imposter syndrome.

I think everybody here is familiar with this one. The belief that you are under qualified to do your job. But I promise to teach you how to avoid these biases. Right?

So what you need to do here — is to remember to cross your t’s and dot your i’s. Because if you think you are better than what you really are — you would not have any problems in proving it. And if you are unsure of your work — double checking your stuff will always keep you out of trouble.

Next is the post-purchase rationalization. This is when you start making excuses for your buying behavior. By trying to justify the reasoning behind your purchases after the fact.
And the opposite idea here is the buyer’s remorse…

Realizing that you should not have bought that. Here you can see an image of voice assistant devices and you may love your Alexa or Google home. But the truth is, that if you own one — you just invited the CIA, FBI, and NSA into your house — without the need of a court order.

Now the way we avoid this behavior is by understanding the concept called — total cost of ownership. Which tell us that the real cost of goods is not the one in the price tag. The best way to illustrate this is with car buying because 20, 40, or 60ks is not real price of owning a car. Because we must take into consideration — expenses such as taxes, licenses, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation.

Next is the halo effect. Assuming good traits in people because they look the part or because of their personal branding. And this is just the opposite of stereotyping.

So let’s all do the following. The next time we assume anything good or bad about the people around us because the way they look, or the signals they are trying to give out. Remember to…

Read the book, and not just the cover. Because they can be all bark and no bite.

Lastly is the beneffectance effect. Believing that anything and everything good that happens to us is because we are that lucky or good. As you know this is mistake…

Just like believing that everything bad that happened to us is because of our bad luck — as the pessimism bias tell us.

So here what you need to remember is that luck only favors the prepared mind. Because just like a good sports team or scientist our success is directly proportional — to the amount of work we put into it.

To recap the keys of this talk are:
Make yourself great again by double checking your work.
Buy it tomorrow — sleep on it and then decide.
Hide the name of the author. Read the book first and then draw your own conclusions.
And don’t be the pink panther… life is just a collection of random events. The best we can do is to react to them in a smart way.

This is it, my name is Irving Rivera am with TCS and I market and sell to personas — but I design for the jobs that need to be done.

Thank you!