Sometimes we make logical decisions, but there are many times when we make emotional, irrational, and confusing choices. There are many areas of everyday life where these mental processes and heuristics are incredibly useful, and the idea is not to eliminate these thinking mechanisms.
The problem is that our brains are so good at performing these functions that they slip into these patterns so quickly and effortlessly, and we can often end up using them in situations where they don’t best serve us.
1) Survivorship Bias
Survivorship bias refers to our tendency to focus on the winners in a particular area and try to learn from them while completely forgetting about the losers who are employing the exact same strategy.
We only hear from the people who survive. We mistakenly overvalue the strategies, tactics, and advice of one survivor while ignoring the fact that the same strategies, tactics, and advice didn’t work for most people.
Take Away - For every college dropout entrepreneur billionaire, there are thousands who took this same path and failed. If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Focus on first mastering the basics before enthusiastically running to the top of the mountain blind.
2) Loss Aversion
Loss aversion refers to our tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains. Research has shown that if someone gives you $10, you will experience a small boost in satisfaction, but if you lose $10, you will experience a dramatically higher loss in satisfaction. Yes, the responses are opposite, but they are not equal in magnitude.
Take Away - Our tendency to avoid losses causes us to make silly decisions and change our behavior simply to keep the things that we already own and overvalue them in comparison with options. When practicing your craft, you may be rejected many times, but you will also be rewarded by people who choose to work with you.
You must believe that the gains won from your daily process will eventually outweigh the losses, so be persistent.
3) The Availability Heuristic
The Availability Heuristic refers to a common mistake that our brains make by assuming that the examples that come to mind easily are also the most important or prevalent things.
Take Away - We overvalue and overestimate the impact of things that we can remember, and we undervalue and underestimate the prevalence of the events we hear nothing about. The network news takes advantage of this every day by hyper-focusing on a narrow range of particular stories, political views, or isolated events.
In the fitness world, this can be seen with the “shiny object syndrome” where the new and sexy tool of the day will promise you 6 pack abs, according to a fitness model who ate their last carbohydrate molecule in 2009 (that isn’t in the fine print by the way.)
4) Anchoring
Anchoring is a psychological tactic used in many areas of business to desensitize the customer towards accepting a mid-level price point or add-ons. This is not necessarily a bad thing as long as you are not abusing this principle with your customers.
Take Away - This principle describes the human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information they receive. When you’re given an anchor, you subconsciously start asking yourself, how much more or less can it be from the number you were given?
Once your mind is exposed to a higher price, anything in comparison to that will seem economical (even though it really might not be.)
5) Confirmation Bias
100% we all do this. The idea is to be aware of it and keep an open mind.
Confirmation bias refers to our tendency to search for and favor information that confirms our beliefs while simultaneously ignoring or devaluing information that contradicts our beliefs.
Take Away - Changing your mind is harder than it looks. The more you believe you know something, the more you filter and ignore all information to the contrary.
It is not natural for most of us to formulate a hypothesis and then test various ways to prove it false. Instead, it is far more likely that we will form one hypothesis, assume it is true, and only seek out and believe information that supports it.
Most people don’t want new information. They want information that validates their current beliefs.
- “Dr. Oz said that red wine is good for my heart, so I can drink it every day, yes?”
- "I read online that carbs are more evil than ISIS, yes?”
- “My knees hurt, and my doctor said that I shouldn’t lift anything over 5 pounds, yes?”
You cannot manage what you cannot measure.
- Is your exercise program working?
- Are there tangible results for your students?
- Do you ask your students to evaluate your performance?
- Are you on the lookout for educational workshops and/or new certifications?
- Are you following a proven training program for yourself?
These are questions that you can ask yourself to help identify confirmation bias in your craft and decision-making process. The time-saving and efficient nature of heuristics can be beneficial in certain situations and help to avoid choice paralysis.
In this sense, heuristics aren’t good or bad in themselves. Instead, they’re a more or less appropriate form of decision-making depending upon the situation.
However, relying too much on “hacks”, emotions, home remedies, general rules, or half-related experiences may stop us from noticing important details and thinking through logically about the present situation.
