Competencies and Learning Objectives:
- What are cognitive biases?
- What are some of the most common cognitive biases?
- Why are cognitive biases important?
- What is the relevance of cognitive biases to the IDL curriculum?
- How do common cognitive biases undercut healthy relationships?
- How do common cognitive biases undercut healthy thinking?
- How do common cognitive biases affect night time dreaming?
- What can be done to reduce the negative effects of common cognitive biases?
- What are interventions to use with specific cognitive biases?
- How to neutralize the negative impact of each cognitive bias in your relationships
- How to neutralize the negative impact of each cognitive bias in your thinking
- How to neutralize the negative impact of each cognitive bias in your dreams
What are cognitive biases?
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from rationality or sound judgment, affecting our decision-making processes and leading to perceptual distortions, inaccurate judgments, and irrational behaviors. Cognitive biases differ from cognitive distortions and logical fallacies in that they are inherited, and hard-wired, important elements of our cognitive processing. Cognitive biases generally arise from mental shortcuts or heuristics that our brains use to process information efficiently. This efficiency has adaptive value but can result in errors in reasoning. Cognitive biases impact many aspects of our thinking, including perception, memory, attention, and decision-making. They are much more subjective and hidden than are cognitive distortions and logical fallacies. It is not only more difficult to identify them, but also more difficult to fight against the feeling that they are useful and make sense. This is because they are useful from an adaptive standpoint and they do make sense in some specific circumstances. We are mostly concerned here with those cognitive biases that affect our judgment and decision-making ability.
What are some of the most common cognitive biases?
Over one hundred cognitive biases have so far been identified. These involve group vs individual decisions, risk assessment, likelihood, reliability of memories, motivation, and other factors. While these categories may sound abstract, they affect our perception, judgments, and decision-making in concrete ways, leading us to be confident of information and decisions when we are flat-out wrong. Here are some of the most common cognitive biases. We will first describe them and then consider how they affect our relationships, thinking, and dreams and then turn to what strategies we can use to counteract their negative effects.
Confirmation Bias: This bias involves favoring information that confirms our existing beliefs or hypotheses while ignoring or discounting contradictory evidence. It can lead to the reinforcement of stereotypes, the persistence of false beliefs, and the reluctance to consider alternative viewpoints. For example, if we learn that seeing the sun in a dream represents light, life, or warmth, we are likely to project those meanings onto future dreams.
Availability Heuristic: This bias involves judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory. Events that are more vivid, recent, or easily recalled are perceived as more common or probable, regardless of their actual frequency or likelihood. For example, because yesterday’s events are fresh in our memory, we are more likely to ascribe dream causation to some recently experienced waking event.
Anchoring Bias: Anchoring bias occurs when we rely too heavily on initial pieces of information (the “anchor”) when making judgments or estimates. Subsequent information is then interpreted relative to the anchor, leading to systematic errors in decision-making. Dream dictionaries provide interpretations that function as such “anchors.”
Overconfidence Bias: Overconfidence bias involves an unwarranted belief in one’s own abilities, knowledge, or judgment. We tend to overestimate our accuracy or performance, leading to excessive risk-taking, poor planning, and underestimation of potential challenges or obstacles. Because we do not normally have access to the interpretations of other dream characters besides ourselves, we can easily assume that our interpretation of dream events is correct – a reflection of the overconfidence bias.
Framing Effect: The framing effect occurs when the way information is presented influences decision-making. The same information presented in different ways can lead to different judgments or choices, highlighting the impact of framing on perception and decision-making. We see this in the way we interpret dreams when compared to the way interviewed dream characters interpret them. IDL refers to this as “multi-perspectivalism.” It is not unusual for interviewed dream characters to supply information about a dream that we did not notice or considered unimportant, resulting in a fuller or different framing of the dream.
Hindsight Bias: Hindsight bias, also known as the “I-knew-it-all-along” effect, involves the tendency to perceive events as having been predictable or inevitable after they have occurred. This bias can lead to overconfidence in one’s ability to predict outcomes and can distort our understanding of past events. This is commonly seen with interviews of both dreams and life issues. There is a tendency to discount what we have been told by an interviewed character because, after all, the revealed perspectives are innate to us and therefore “known” on some level. However, that is not the point. Much more important is not whether information is new or insightful, but what weight or priority is given to this or that issue, feeling, or experience. The Hindsight Bias tends to occlude the important realization that our dream or life issue is being reframed in a creative and useful way.
Loss Aversion: Loss aversion refers to the tendency to prefer avoiding losses over acquiring equivalent gains. People often weigh potential losses more heavily than potential gains, leading to risk aversion and reluctance to take action, even when the potential benefits outweigh the potential costs. This is one reason why we may be reluctant to do interviews. We weigh what we have not experienced yet – the interview and whatever value it may have in our lives or the life of someone we may interview – against the time that is lost doing the interview and processing it. This cognitive bias causes us to weigh the potential loss of our time more heavily than any potential gains we may get from doing the interview.
Sunk Cost Fallacy: The sunk cost fallacy involves the tendency to continue investing resources (time, money, effort) into a project or endeavor, even when it is no longer rational to do so, simply because resources have already been invested. This bias can lead to poor decision-making and perpetuation of unsuccessful ventures. We use this bias with habits, routines, and our belief systems. We have invested our time, energy, and identity in acquiring our life script, developing skills, beliefs, and our worldview. The Sunk Cost Fallacy explains why nations continue fighting wars well beyond the point that it is clear that they have lost. Diverting our resources from our committed investments is not only uncomfortable but threatens the value of the meaning of our life, which we have relied on to define who we are. Giving up on that value and meaning, particularly when our identity is closely associated with it, is aversive, causing us to often choose to do more of what has been proven not to work.
Why are cognitive biases important?
Hopefully, from the above examples, you can see how and why understanding cognitive biases is important for improving decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, as it empowers you to recognize and mitigate the influence of built-in biases on your judgments and behaviors. Cognitive biases shed light on why you make the decisions you do, even when those decisions may seem irrational or illogical. By recognizing and understanding these biases, you gain insight into the underlying mechanisms of human behavior, which can be valuable in your relationships, thinking, and dreaming, as they impact on your health, balance, and ability to transform. By recognizing when biases may be influencing your judgments, you can take steps to mitigate their effects and make decisions that are based on evidence, logic, and reason rather than on flawed heuristics or emotional impulses.
Learning about cognitive biases encourages critical thinking by encouraging you to question your own assumptions, beliefs, and thought processes. By actively challenging biases and considering alternative perspectives, you can develop more robust analytical skills and make more accurate assessments of situations. Understanding these biases can help you identify potential pitfalls and errors in your reasoning, thereby reducing the likelihood of making costly mistakes or poor choices. By recognizing biases that may be influencing your own or others’ communication, you can strive for clearer, more effective communication and collaboration.
Cognitive biases can also lead to unfair or biased judgments and decisions, particularly in areas such as hiring, performance evaluations, and legal proceedings. Awareness of biases can generate greater objectivity and fairness in your assessments and interactions with others. Marketers, advertisers, and persuaders often leverage cognitive biases to influence our buying and voting behaviors. Understanding these biases can help you recognize and resist manipulative tactics, making you more resistant to misleading or deceptive advertising and persuasion attempts.
What is the relevance of cognitive biases to the IDL curriculum?
Cognitive biases can make it difficult to outgrow childhood life scripting by reinforcing and perpetuating patterns of thought and behavior that were learned during childhood. Our scripting is strongly affected by cognitive biases working outside of our awareness during our formative years. Those biases generate an internal consistency that feels comfortable and rational, even in the most harmful and useless scripts. Therefore, understanding how our life scripts reflect and are supported by various cognitive biases is an important element in outgrowing harmful or ineffective script injunctions and life positions.
As one example, the Confirmation Bias can easily lead us to seek out information that confirms our preexisting beliefs or expectations. In the context of childhood life scripting, confirmation bias can cause us to interpret new experiences in ways that align with our familiar childhood narratives, reinforcing our existing beliefs about ourselves and the world.
Your unrecognized cognitive biases can keep you stuck in the roles of Persecutor, Victim, and Rescuer in the Drama Triangle. They do so by minimizing facts, experiences, and memories that contradict your preferred role of the moment or by selecting those experiences that validate this or that role. The Attribution Bias can lead us to attribute the behavior of others to internal characteristics or intentions, rather than considering external factors or circumstances. In the Persecutor role, attribution bias can cause you to interpret others’ actions as deliberate attempts to harm or control you, leading to feelings of victimization and a desire to retaliate. The Negativity Bias can cause you to give more weight to negative experiences or information than positive ones. In the Victim role, negativity bias can cause you to focus excessively on perceived injustices or adversities, leading you to view yourself as helpless or unfairly targeted by others. In the Rescuer role, the Messiah complex can cause you to see yourself as a savior or hero, seeking out opportunities to intervene in others’ lives without their consent or without considering the potential consequences. The Messiah Complex is a cognitive bias that can cause you to believe that we have a moral obligation or special ability to rescue others from their problems or suffering.
Cognitive biases can also provide “reasons” to maintain cognitive distortions and logical fallacies. For instance, Loss Aversion can lead you to hold on to an irrational position or emotionally-based belief.
Cognitive biases also interfere with goal setting. The Overconfidence Bias can cause you to overestimate your abilities and the likelihood of success. When setting goals, you may be overly optimistic about your capacity to achieve them, leading to unrealistic or unattainable objectives.
The Status Quo Bias can cause you to prefer maintaining the current state of affairs over making changes, even if those changes could lead to improvements. In terms of assertiveness, status quo bias can make you reluctant to assert your needs or boundaries out of fear of disrupting existing relationships or dynamics.
Regarding life balance, status quo bias can prevent you from making necessary adjustments to your routines or priorities to achieve a better balance between work, family, and personal interests.
In regard to problem-solving, the Availability Heuristic can lead you to rely too heavily on information that is readily available or easily recalled, rather than conducting a comprehensive analysis of all relevant factors. The Availability Heuristic can cause you to overestimate the likelihood of events or outcomes based on the ease with which relevant examples come to mind.
Cognitive biases can undermine your meditation practice in several ways. The Expectation Bias occurs when your expectations influence your perceptions of reality. In meditation, expectation bias can lead practitioners to anticipate specific outcomes or experiences, such as profound insights or immediate relaxation, which may not align with the natural progression of their practice.
Regarding pranayama, the Illusion of Control bias can cause you to believe you have more control over outcomes than you actually do. In pranayama, the illusion of control can cause you to become frustrated or discouraged when you are unable to achieve specific states of breath control or manipulate your physiological responses as you would like.
Cognitive biases can also undermine the setting of clear intention. When setting intentions, the Sunk Cost Fallacy can cause you to persist with goals or desires that are not aligned with the priorities of your life compass, out of a sense of obligation or attachment to your previous investment.
How do common cognitive biases undercut healthy relationships?
Common cognitive biases can undermine healthy relationships by distorting perceptions, fueling misunderstandings, and contributing to conflict. In relationships, confirmation bias can lead you to selectively focus on evidence that confirms your preexisting beliefs or assumptions about your partner. For example, if you believe your partner is unreliable you may only notice instances that support this belief while overlooking evidence to the contrary. This can create a cycle of mistrust and resentment.
Attribution bias involves attributing behavior to internal characteristics (such as personality traits) rather than external factors (such as situational factors). For example, if your partner forgets to do something, attribution bias may lead you to attribute it to laziness or irresponsibility rather than considering external factors like stress or distraction. This can lead to unfair judgments and resentment.
Negativity bias can cause you to pay more attention to negative information or experiences than positive ones. In relationships, this can lead to disproportionate focus on conflicts, grievances, or past mistakes, overshadowing positive interactions and experiences. Over time, this can erode trust and intimacy.
Projection bias occurs when you attribute your own thoughts, feelings, or motives to others. For example, if you are feeling insecure in a relationship you may project your insecurities onto your partner, suspecting them of disloyalty or betrayal without evidence. This can lead to unwarranted accusations and strain the relationship.
Anchoring Bias involves relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making judgments or decisions. In relationships, this can manifest as holding onto initial impressions or perceptions of your partner, even when subsequent experiences suggest otherwise. This can prevent you from recognizing growth or changes in your partner, leading to stagnation in the relationship. It can also cause you to deny the reality of who they are beneath and beyond who you want or need them to be, or the assumptions that you have projected onto them.
Hindsight Bias can cause you to perceive events as having been predictable or inevitable after they have occurred. In relationships, this can lead to blaming your partner for issues that arose due to complex, multifaceted factors. It can also inhibit forgiveness and reconciliation by making it difficult to move past past mistakes or conflicts.
The Self-serving bias involves attributing positive outcomes to your own abilities and negative outcomes to circumstances beyond your control. For example, the benefits of the relationship are due to your hard work and caring and the deficits of the relationship are due to your partner’s laziness and thoughtlessness. In relationships, this can lead to defensiveness, denial of responsibility, and a lack of accountability for one’s actions, undermining trust and mutual respect.
How do common cognitive biases undercut healthy thinking?
Common cognitive biases can undermine healthy thinking by distorting your perceptions, leading to errors in judgment, and influencing decision-making processes. Confirmation bias can cause you to seek out and interpret information in a way that confirms your existing beliefs or hypotheses while disregarding contradictory evidence. This can prevent you from considering alternative viewpoints, conducting thorough research, or making well-informed decisions based on evidence. Anchoring bias occurs when you rely too heavily on initial information (the “anchor”) when making judgments or estimates. This can lead to errors in judgment by skewing subsequent assessments or evaluations in relation to the initial anchor, rather than considering all available information objectively. The availability heuristic involves judging the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind. This can lead to overestimating the frequency or probability of events that are more memorable or salient, regardless of their actual likelihood. As a result, you may make decisions based on misleading or incomplete information. The overconfidence bias involves an unwarranted belief in your abilities, knowledge, or judgment. This can lead you to overestimate your accuracy or performance, underestimate risks, and overlook potential pitfalls or obstacles, resulting in poor decision-making and suboptimal outcomes. The negativity bias can cause you to pay more attention to negative information or experiences than positive ones. This can lead to a skewed perception of reality, where negative events or feedback loom larger in the mind, overshadowing positive experiences and leading to feelings of pessimism or dissatisfaction. The hindsight bias leads you to perceive events as having been predictable or inevitable after they have occurred. This can lead to overconfidence in your ability to predict outcomes and a tendency to overlook or downplay the role of chance or uncertainty in decision-making. We have seen how the sunk cost fallacy involves continuing to invest resources (time, money, effort) into a project or endeavor simply because resources have already been invested, even when it is no longer rational to do so. This can lead to persistence in unproductive or unsuccessful ventures, rather than cutting losses and reallocating resources more effectively. The self-serving bias can lead you to take credit for success while blaming external factors for failure, hindering self-awareness and accountability.
How do common cognitive biases affect night time dreaming?
Cognitive biases can influence your dreams by shaping the content, themes, and emotional tone of dreams. Confirmation bias could manifest in your dreams by reinforcing existing beliefs, fears, or anxieties. Dream scenarios may exaggerate or distort situations to align with your preconceptions or expectations, leading to vivid dreams that reinforce existing cognitive biases. The availability heuristic may influence dream content by causing you to dream more frequently about events or experiences that are highly salient or memorable in waking life. Dreams may incorporate recent or emotionally charged events more prominently, reflecting the influence of the availability heuristic Negativity bias may lead to the prevalence of negative or distressing themes in your dreams. Dream scenarios may disproportionately focus on threats, conflicts, or fears, reflecting your tendency to pay more attention to negative information or experiences. Projection bias could influence your dream content by causing you to project your own thoughts, feelings, or motives onto dream characters or situations. Dreams may reflect your own inner conflicts, desires, or insecurities, leading to emotionally charged dream experiences. The anchoring bias may shape dream narratives by causing you to anchor dream scenarios or interpretations to initial thoughts, beliefs, or experiences. Dream content may be influenced by your initial impressions or perceptions, leading to biased interpretations of dream events. Hindsight bias may influence dream content by causing you to reinterpret past events or experiences in light of current knowledge or beliefs. Dreams may portray past events as more predictable or inevitable than they seemed at the time, reflecting the influence of hindsight bias on memory consolidation and processing during sleep. The Self-serving bias could manifest in dreams by influencing your perceptions of yourself and others. Dreams may portray you in a more favorable light or attribute negative outcomes to external factors, reflecting your tendency to protect your self-esteem and maintain a positive self-image.
What can be done to reduce the negative effects of common cognitive biases?
I hope from the above you can get a sense of how impactful and far-reaching cognitive biases are in their impact on our relationships, thinking, and dreaming. Once they are recognized it becomes obvious that it is well neigh impossible to think clearly until and unless we learn to recognize and counteract these built in, assumed, ways of thinking.
Reducing the negative effects of common cognitive biases involves increasing awareness of these biases and implementing strategies to mitigate their impact on your decision-making and behavior. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of biases can help you recognize when they may be affecting your judgments and behaviors. To do so, learn to actively question your assumptions, beliefs, and interpretations of events. Doubt and humility can be good things. Consider alternative perspectives and seek out diverse sources of information to avoid relying solely on biased or limited viewpoints. Solicit feedback from others to gain different perspectives and insights. Trusted friends, colleagues, or mentors can provide valuable feedback to help you identify blind spots or biases in your thinking. Take time to reflect and consider your options before making decisions.
Rushed or impulsive decisions are more susceptible to cognitive biases, whereas deliberate, thoughtful decision-making can help counteract bias. Actively seek out and consider counterarguments or conflicting evidence before reaching conclusions. Engaging in critical thinking and weighing different viewpoints can help reduce the influence of confirmation bias. This is one reason IDL emphasizes ongoing interviewing, in order to access multiple legitimate, relevant, and authentic perspectives that reflect your here-and-now life realities. Utilize decision-making tools and techniques, such as decision matrices, pros and cons lists, or cost-benefit analysis, to systematically evaluate options and make more rational decisions. Cultivate mindfulness and self-awareness to become more attuned to your thoughts, emotions, and decision-making processes. Mindfulness practices like IDL naming meditation can help you observe cognitive biases as they arise and choose more adaptive responses. Surround yourself with diverse perspectives, like those you encounter when you do interviews, and experiences to challenge your assumptions and broaden your understanding of the world. Exposure to diverse viewpoints can help counteract the effects of biases such as groupthink or ingroup bias. Be mindful of how emotions may influence your judgments and decisions. Emotions can amplify cognitive biases, so it’s important to regulate your emotions and consider the rational implications of decisions. Reflect on past decisions and outcomes to identify patterns of bias and areas for improvement. Learning from past experiences can help you recognize and avoid repeating similar biases in the future.
What are interventions to use with specific cognitive biases?
To counter the effects of the confirmation bias, actively seek out and consider contradictory evidence or alternative viewpoints. Use structured decision-making processes that require consideration of multiple perspectives and evidence. Engage in hypothesis testing by generating predictions and actively seeking evidence that either supports or refutes those predictions. To counter the effects of the anchoring bias, generate multiple anchors or reference points before making decisions. Use techniques such as bracketing or range estimation to expand the range of possible values and reduce reliance on a single anchor. Provide decision aids or prompts that encourage you to reassess your initial anchor and consider additional information before making judgments. To counter the effects of the availability heuristic, educate yourself about its limitations and its potential to lead to biased judgments. Encourage systematic information gathering and evaluation rather than relying solely on easily accessible or memorable information. Provide training in statistical reasoning and probabilistic thinking to help you assess the reliability and validity of information more accurately. To counter the effects of the overconfidence bias, consider the potential limitations and uncertainties in your judgments and predictions. Use techniques such as confidence ratings or probability estimates to encourage more accurate self-assessment and decision-making. To counter the effects of negativity bias, practice gratitude exercises to counteract the tendency to focus on negative information or experiences. Actively seek out positive aspects of situations or relationships and give them equal weight in decision-making. Use cognitive restructuring techniques to challenge negative thoughts and reframe situations in a more balanced or positive light.To counter the effects of the projection bias, promote self-awareness and introspection to help you recognize and understand your own thoughts, feelings, and motives. Encourage perspective-taking and empathy to foster a better understanding of others’ perspectives and experiences. Use communication techniques such as active listening and reflective questioning to clarify intentions and motivations in interpersonal interactions. To counter the effects of the hindsight bias, emphasize the role of uncertainty and randomness in decision outcomes to counteract the tendency to see events as more predictable in hindsight. Document your decision-making processes and rationales before outcomes are known to prevent hindsight bias from affecting subsequent evaluations. Use debriefing sessions or post-mortem analyses to identify factors that influenced decision outcomes and separate hindsight bias from legitimate learning opportunities. To counter the effects of the sunk cost fallacy, focus on future costs and benefits rather than past investments when making decisions.Use decision-making frameworks that explicitly consider opportunity costs and alternative uses of resources. Provide support and reinforcement for decisions to cut losses or change course, even when doing so involves admitting previous investments were not worthwhile.
How to catch and stop using cognitive biases
Catching and stopping the use of cognitive biases involves developing awareness, actively questioning assumptions, and employing strategies to mitigate your effects. Here’s how to do it:
- Learn about common cognitive biases and how they manifest in decision-making and perception.
- Familiarize yourself with examples of each bias to recognize them in your own thinking.
- Cultivate mindfulness to increase awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and judgments in the present moment.
- Pay attention to instances where biases may be influencing your perceptions or decisions. Challenge your assumptions and beliefs by asking yourself critical questions:
What evidence supports this belief?
Am I making any assumptions without sufficient evidence?
Are there alternative explanations or perspectives to consider?
- Seek Diverse Perspectives: Actively seek out diverse perspectives and opinions to counteract confirmation bias, which is the tendency to seek out information that confirms preexisting beliefs. Engage with people who have different backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints.
- Consider Counterarguments: Encourage critical thinking by considering counterarguments or alternative viewpoints to your own. Practice steelmanning, which involves presenting the strongest possible version of an opposing argument before evaluating it.
- Use Decision-Making Frameworks: Utilize decision-making frameworks, such as cost-benefit analysis or decision trees, to systematically evaluate options and mitigate the effects of biases like anchoring or framing.
- Delay Judgments: When faced with important decisions, avoid making snap judgments and take the time to gather additional information, weigh options, and consider potential biases that may be influencing your thinking.
- Consult Others: Seek input from trusted friends, colleagues, or mentors when making decisions or evaluating information. They may offer valuable insights and perspectives that can help mitigate the effects of biases.
- Track Decisions and Outcomes: Keep a record of your decisions and your outcomes to identify patterns of bias over time. Reflect on instances where biases may have influenced your decisions and consider how you can adjust your thinking in the future.
- Continuous Learning and Improvement: Stay open to feedback and actively seek opportunities for learning and growth. Be willing to challenge your own assumptions and beliefs, and strive to develop more rational and evidence-based approaches to decision-making.
By practicing these strategies consistently, you can increase your awareness of cognitive biases, mitigate your effects, and make more informed and rational decisions in various aspects of your life.
Assignments and Homework
Reading:
Under “Essays and Interviews,” read:
A Brief Walk Through the Ladder of Development
Videos:
In the IDL video curricula, watch:
Identifying and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 1
Cognitive biases are inherited perceptual generalizations designed for making better, quicker decisions in a traditional natural and tribal environment. However, we no longer live in a natural or tribal environment, so many of these cognitive biases work against adaptation and waking up. Recognizing and counteracting the most problematic of them is important for any transpersonal yoga.
Recognizing and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases 1
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Identifying and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 2
In this, our second video on our hard-wired cognitive biases that create distortions in our perception of others, dreams, and our world, we will take a look at the In-Group, Gambler’s, Post-Purchase, and Neglecting Probability Biases.
Recognizing and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 2
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Identifying and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 3
In this video we discuss the FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR or the “AVOIDANCE OF RESPONSIBILITY” BIAS , the MORAL LUCK BIAS, the FALSE CONSENSUS BIAS, the JUST WORLD HYPOTHESIS and the DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT, or the “False Confidence” bias.
Recognizing and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 3
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Identifying and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 4
In this video we discuss the PROJECTION, or “MINI ME” BIAS, the CURRENT MOMENT BIAS, the HALO EFFECT, or “GEE, YOU’RE WONDERFUL!” BIAS, and the SELF-SERVING BIAS.
Recognizing and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 4
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Identifying and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 5
In this video we deal with the FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR or the “AVOIDANCE OF RESPONSIBILITY” BIAS, the MORAL LUCK BIAS, the FALSE CONSENSUS BIAS, the JUST WORLD HYPOTHESIS and the DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT.
Recognizing and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 5
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Identifying and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 6
In this, the sixth video in this series on Cognitive biases, we discuss REACTANCE, the AVAILABILITY CASCADE , the PLACEBO EFFECT, CRYPTOMNESIA, The BLIND SPOT BIAS, NAIVE CYNICISM , and the SPOTLIGHT EFFECT BIAS. Be on the lookout for all of the biases in this series not only in yourself and those in your life, but in those others you interview. While they may be observed in dreams, your subjects will also experience them in your waking lives.
Recognizing and Defusing Your Cognitive Biases: 6
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Logical Fallacies that Mess Up Dreamwork
In this video I want to share with you how easily some common logical fallacies show up in how we approach dreams and your interpretations, and how IDL avoids them. Logical fallacies are generally thought of as errors in communication with others or in our thinking. In our application there, we are applying logical fallacies to the ways we experience our dreams and the conclusions we draw about them, both while dreaming, and later, when we are awake. By extension, if you learn to recognize and avoid them in relationship to your dreams, you will probably be more likely to stop using them yourself and more quickly detect when others are using them.
Quizlet
Check for study questions and/or create some of your own.
Interviewing:
Look for any cognitive biases that you may have regarding the usefulness and meaning of your dreams. See if you can spot any cognitive biases that show up in how you perceive what’s going on in your dreams while you are asleep and dreaming. Look for cognitive biases in the life issues that you interview, both yourself and others. Look for them in the responses characters give to interviewing questions.
At a minimum, do one interview a week, getting experience with both dream and life issue protocols.
One week, interview yourself.
One week, interview a subject. It can be a fellow team member, a family member, friend, or client.
One week, be interviewed by someone else.
Submit your written interviews to your supervising team member. To have your interviews automatically created for you, use the on-line interviewing format on this site.
Questions:
- Write down your answers to the following questions.
- Share your answers with your other study team members.
- Discuss.
- Submit your written answers.
What cognitive biases do you find yourself most likely to use?
Setting Intent
What do you want to take away from this unit to improve your life?
How would you like it to influence your dreams tonight?
How can you format that as a statement of intention to read over to remind yourself, before you go to sleep, to incubate in your dreams tonight?
