The Einstellung Effect and Functional Fixedness: Two Dangerous Cognitive Biases and How to Overcome Them
What you DO know can most definitely hurt you, or at least keep you from thinking of great ideas.
If you could snap your fingers and become an expert on something — anything — by tomorrow, would you? Most of us probably would.
It feels good to be the expert on something. People turn to you for answers. You become a “thought leader.” Your opinion is respected above most others’. You have the answers, and can solve problems that others can’t.
But is expertise all it’s cracked up to be? As it turns out, no — it’s not.
Expertise can actually be a barrier to creative problem-solving. Which means it can be a barrier to innovation and growth. The more you know, and the more experience you have, the harder it can be to come up with ideas to solve problems. It’s called the Einstellung Effect. And it was discovered in an interesting experiment.
Read on.
The Water Jug Experiment
In 1942, psychologist Abraham Luchins conducted an experiment to see how perceived expertise affects creative problem-solving. He found that if we solve a problem the same…
