What Is Cognitive Bias? The Effect of Perception on Goal-Setting
The scene: You’re purchasing a new phone online. After hours of research and comparison, you make your choice. However, even after your meticulous analysis, you can't help but notice and be influenced by the "bestseller" tag on one of the models. Suddenly, your well-reasoned decision seems shaky, swayed by the apparent popularity of another option.
This typical inclination is steered by cognitive bias, automatic mental shortcuts that subtly influence our decisions and judgments. They can often lead us astray, causing us to misconstrue reality and act foolishly.
Our mind's shortcuts don't just mess with our decision-making; they sneak into everyday situations. That's why we should learn how these oddities work and how to use them. Let's explore these types of cognitive biases, see how they mess with us, and learn how to apply them to our benefit.
What Is Cognitive Bias?
Cognitive bias is the automatic mental pathway that our brains follow based on previous experiences and conclusions. Often, these shortcuts help us think and make decisions, but they can also lead to mistakes or misconceptions.
The concept of bias refers to bias as a distortion of judgment; trial-and-error experiences are often responsible for them.
By simplifying information through the lens of personal experience and preferences, our brains streamline and manage vast amounts of information. While this mechanism is efficient, its underlying limitations can result in incorrect or flawed conclusions.
You may wonder why these different types of bias occur. Research suggests that the following factors cause cognitive bias:
Fixation on past experiences: Reminding you of past experiences and potentially influencing your judgment today
Social conformity pressure: The influence of social pressure to align one's thoughts with the majority, often leading to conformity in decision-making.
Anchoring effect: Getting fixated on initial information and adjusting insufficiently when new information is presented.
Fear of change: The desire to keep things as they are, even when they aren't logical.
Repetition of learned behaviors: Repeating behaviors based on previous experiences, especially in similar situations.
Why Understanding Cognitive Bias is Essential to Successful Goal-Setting
Setting goals is crucial to growing and moving forward. However, cognitive bias can interfere. The biases we hold are often the ones that act as hidden roadblocks to conquering objectives. Cognitive biases, such as overconfidence, confirmation bias, or negativity bias, can skew our perceptions and planning, leading to unrealistic goals or strategies that are not fully aligned with reality.
This happens in thousands of ways, such as seeking information that validates your current goals while ignoring warning signs or other options or focusing on recent failures or successes, distorting your perception of your capabilities.
We must recognize these unconscious biases, acknowledge their influence, and make decisions accordingly to set practical goals. Simply put, understanding cognitive biases is a powerful tool in goal-setting, helping individuals and teams navigate the complexities of decision-making, planning, and execution with enhanced clarity, objectivity, and effectiveness. As a result, you can set more realistic, attainable, and well-informed goals, ultimately increasing your chances of success.
13 Types of Bias and How They Influence Goal-Setting
Anchoring Bias
This type of bias refers to the tendency of the brain to make decisions based on the first piece of information it receives. Think of it like an anchor - it stays put and points the way for what's next.
Effects on Goal-Setting: When individuals establish goals, they might get attached to those first objectives, limiting the flexibility to adapt and adjust as circumstances change, making it challenging to stay on track.
Everyday Example of the anchoring bias: You set a goal to run 5 kilometers four times a week, but a sudden work meeting disrupts your plan. Instead of handling it calmly, you get frustrated and disappointed, causing you to skip your run altogether.
2. Confirmation Bias
It is the tendency to listen to information that confirms your existing beliefs. This implicit bias alone makes people more likely to favor information that reinforces their opinions.
Effects on Goal-Setting: Dealing with this bias can cause you to overlook valuable opportunities for growth and settle for goals within your comfort zone, as you remain entrenched in your own beliefs.
Everyday Example of the confirmation bias: You're in a motivational slump, following others who share your struggles online. Instead of taking action, you choose to "chill" and remain inactive, reinforcing your current mindset as you watch others online behave similarly.
3. Sunk Cost Effect
It is the tendency of people to continue investing in something that needs to be fixed to avoid failure.
Effects on Goal-Setting: Individuals cling to unsuccessful goals or projects instead of reassessing and redirecting efforts.
Everyday Example of the Distinction Bias: You start training for a marathon and realize you are unprepared as the race nears. You have invested so much time and effort that you feel compelled to continue despite the risks.
4. Misinformation Effect
This occurs when an event's recollection is affected by post-event information. It has been shown that memory is susceptible to influences of all kinds. For instance, a witness to a car accident might believe they remember it perfectly, but they actually don't.
Effects on Goal-Setting: If the memory of these past events is influenced by misinformation, it can lead to inaccurate self-assessment, making it challenging to set and pursue achievable and sustainable goals.
Everyday Example of the Misinformation effect: Not taking up a sport as an adult because you believe you're not good enough, based on an experience from your childhood.
5. The Hindsight Bias
It is the tendency to attribute past events as more predictable than they were. It's almost as if you knew it all along.
Effects on Goal-Setting: This bias can make you overconfident, thinking you're a super predictor of future events. It might lead to setting wild, overly optimistic goals based on a somewhat twisted view of past happenings.
Everyday Example of the Hindsight Bias: Imagine watching a sports game, and after your friend's team loses, you confidently declare, "I knew they were going to lose from the start." This is a classic illustration of the hindsight bias, by which you perceive the outcome as more predictable after the event.
6. Halo Effect
The halo effect refers to making judgments about someone based on their first impressions.
Effects on Goal-Setting: This bias can prevent effective goal-setting by favoring surface-level attributes over deeper, meaningful considerations.
Everyday Example of the Halo effect: Imagine someone setting a goal to find a romantic partner. If influenced by this bias, they might prioritize individuals with striking looks from first impressions, potentially overlooking deeper qualities and compatibility.
7. The Actor-Observer Bias
The actor-observer bias is when we tend to attribute our actions to external factors and others' efforts to internal traits. For instance, if you and your colleague both make mistakes in a meeting, you might think it's because you were asked a tougher question (external) while your colleague messed up due to laziness (internal).
Effects on Goal-Setting: Blaming others rather than being honest with yourself leads to inconsistent self-assessment and unrealistic goals that don't align with reality.
Everyday Example of the Actor-Observer Bias: You set a reading goal but find it hard to stick to. Instead of adjusting your schedule, you blame your roommate for reading the book you wanted to read, shifting responsibility for your goal.
8. The Availability Heuristic
This bias occurs when we judge how likely something will happen based on how many examples we know about the topic.
Effects on Goal-Setting: This bias can lead to false conclusions. For instance, you might believe you'll fail an exam because you can easily recall examples of people you know who failed it. Setting goals can discourage you from taking action because you assume failure is inevitable.
Everyday Example of the availability Heuristic: You keep indulging in junk food because you vividly remember people who tried to quit but failed. This decision is influenced by the ease of recalling examples of unsuccessful attempts to change unhealthy eating habits.
9. Optimism Bias
It refers to a false belief that you are less likely to fail or have bad luck than others.
Effects on Goal-Setting: People with this bias might not realize how hard something is and think they'll easily reach their goals. This can make them overly confident and unprepared for problems, making it tough to actually achieve their plans.
Everyday Example of the optimism bias: You set a goal to journal every morning despite limited prior writing experience. You stick with it for a week but then give up, realizing the unsustainable goal. This is optimism bias, where you overestimate your ability to sustain a demanding routine.
10. The Self-Serving Bias
People with self-serving bias tend to credit themselves for their successes while blaming external factors for their failures. Most people assume that when they do well on a project is because they work hard. However, when things go wrong, they blame circumstances or bad luck
Effects on Goal-Setting: Sustainable and genuine personal growth often involves acknowledging your limitations and being open to help from others. Setting goals while pretending you're entirely self-reliant makes you more likely to encounter obstacles that could lead to frustration and setbacks.
Everyday Example of the Self-Serving Bias: You perform poorly on a crucial exam and blame the professor for being unfair, overlooking the need for more study. This is an everyday example of the self-serving bias, where external factors are attributed to failure to protect your self-esteem.
11. Framing effect
The framing effect is based on the idea that our brains can interpret the same information differently based on its presentation.
Advertisers know this well – they tweak how they offer information to shape buyers' views.
Effects on Goal-Setting: The framing effect is evident in how we word our goals. There's a significant contrast between stating a goal as "Stop using the phone at night" and framing it positively as "Spend quality time with family and stay off screens at night." Like the first example, negative framing can feel restrictive and less motivating, while positive framing encourages a more constructive and achievable approach.
Everyday Example of the framing effect: You choose 80% fat-free yogurt over 20% fat yogurt at the supermarket, even though they're the same. The way they're labeled sways your choice – "80% fat-free" sounds healthier and more appealing than "20% fat."
12. False consensus effect
With this type of bias, you overestimate the number of people who share your opinions or believe your behaviors are typical.
Effects on Goal-Setting: With this cognitive bias, people might set goals without thinking about what others think, assuming everyone's on the same page. This can lead to goals that don't align with others' needs, damaging relationships and personal growth.
Everyday Example of the False Consensus Effect: You start incorporating vegetables into your daily meals, assuming your partner shares your enthusiasm for a healthier diet. Without discussing your intentions with your partner, you fill the fridge with veggies and cook nutritious meals. However, you later discover that your partner wanted to avoid joining you on this diet journey and preferred their usual meals.
13. Negativity bias
Because of this cognitive bias, the human brain tends to place more significance on negative events than positive ones.
Effects on Goal-Setting: Goal-setting is compromised by this bias. It makes people hesitant to take calculated risks or strive for big objectives because they fear bad things happening.
Everyday Example of the Negativity bias: Your reluctance to join the book club you've always wanted to be a part of, driven by your negativity bias, hinders you from enjoying the social interaction and shared interests it provides.