They are very deeply rooted, and you will not be able to overcome them just like that. And it is difficult to learn everything by heart, there are more than a hundred traps of thinking. But you can start by studying the most common ones, we described them in our book. Return to the description from time to time, so you will gradually remember the signs of various cognitive distortions and learn to recognize them in your thoughts.
Try to keep track of which traps you fall into most often. And before you make a decision or make a judgment about a situation, ask yourself if your brain has lured you into one of them.
But the method is useful for absolutely everyone. Before making any decision, think about whether you are hungry, annoyed, lonely or tired right now. Such feelings make you less rational. Under their influence, it is easier to do something harmful to yourself or make an inadequate decision. It's worth waiting until you feel better.
It is suitable for making responsible decisions with serious consequences. It was created by Gokul’s S.P.A.D.E. Toolkit: How to implement Square’s famous decision-making framework / Coda Gokul Rajaram, who worked as an engineer at Google, Facebook* and Square. The system consists of five steps:
Let's say you're already leaning towards a decision. Think about what happens if you choose the opposite option. Imagine that you need to defend it in front of others, and collect the data that you will need to defend it. Compare it with the arguments that your original decision is based on.
Now look again at how optimal your original option is. A look from the other side and the additional data collected will help to make a more balanced choice.
The Economist magazine conducted a small study The importance of irrelevant alternatives / The Economist by asking your subscribers to rate three offers:
Only about 16% of respondents chose the first option, while the rest preferred the third. Everything seems to be obvious: it is much more profitable, because you get both the online version and the printed one. But when the second offer was removed, 68% of people already chose the first option, because it is the cheapest. The opportunity to receive both versions of the magazine no longer seemed profitable to them.
This statistic demonstrates an interesting fact. Even information about what is unprofitable or not necessary for us (in the example above, an expensive subscription to the printed version of the publication) can strongly influence the choice of a solution that will not be the best for us. Remind yourself of this and what is important to you in each particular case in order to avoid this.
This is a simple and quite effective way to protect yourself from the pitfalls of thinking. Contact those you trust: relatives, friends, business partners, mentors. They will be able to express honest constructive criticism and point out weaknesses.
Naturally, they are also subject to cognitive distortions, but when you get to know the points of view of different people and compare them with your own, you will have a better chance to make an objective decision.
Remember how you used to make decisions in a similar situation. What difficulties did you encounter and how did you cope with them? What was the result and what did you learn? The answers to these questions will guide you in the right direction.
And what are you guided by when you make decisions? Tell us in the comments.
*Activity of Meta Platforms Inc. and its social networks Facebook and Instagram is prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation.
