Heuristics and Biases
MEntal Shortcuts of our brain
Hello Reader,
Are you able to understand the paragraph of jumbled words?
Ocne uopn a tmie, terhe was a redaer. Tehy weer socllrnig thorguh the itnrenet and cmae aorcss a parrgaaph full of julbemd wrdos. Cruosuily, they funod tehy culod uesdnatnrd the mgessae, eevn tuhgoh ervteyihng was mexid up. The redaer pusead, tnhiinkg aoubt tihs altbiiy … hwo deos our biran do tihs? Tehy thhgout lnog and hrad. In the end, tehy dcdeied it was tmie for lncuh and mdae tehlemesvs a deoluciis beagl!
If you are a native English speaker like myself, you will likely have found this paragraph easy to understand despite the fact that many of the letters are out of place. This is because our brains use a shortcut when reading; we focus the majority of our attention on the first and last letters of a word and ignore what is in the middle. This strategy means that we can understand the text without having to compute every single letter.
HEURISTICS
Our brains are amazing! We have developed a range of mental shortcuts like the one above to help us function as efficiently as possible. Our brains use these shortcuts behind the scenes to make sense of all the chaotic information we are bombarded with throughout our day to day lives. The term for these mental shortcuts is heuristics.
Heuristics work in our subconscious. Daniel Khaneman, a leading psychologist in this field, explains that our brain has a subconscious function (System 1) and a conscious function (System 2). Think of our brains like a theatre production. The stage is our conscious brain; this is what we see, understand and are aware of. Backstage is our subconscious brain; this is all the lighting, costumes, sound, orchestra, stage hands that we are unaware of, but make the performance possible. The heuristics of our subconscious brain make our conscious thinking possible - cherish them!
Let’s explore a pair of heuristics.
Familiarity Heuristic: the pattern of favouring that which is familiar over something novel.
Example: I was in the supermarket, buying shampoo. When I reached the toiletries aisle, I was bombarded with all the different options … I didn’t have the energy to analyze them all, so I chose Pantene because I had used it before and it was familiar to me.
If we did not have this heuristic, we would never know our preferences and instead have to consistently sort through all the different options before making a decision.
Representativeness Heuristic: the shortcut of grouping objects by similarity and organizing them based around the category prototype (e.g. like goes with like)
Example: I saw a wee kid the other day while out for a walk. They looked about 4 years old … automatically, I thought to myself, they are dependent on an adult, carefree, playful, have lots of energy, are able to converse and as a stranger, it is recommended I do not to go over and say hello.
If we did not have this heuristic, we would have to rediscover each object over and over again, never being able to sort it into a category to remember.
As you can see from these heuristics, they streamline our understanding of the world, helping us make decisions and handle the constant stream of information we face in our lives.
DANGERS - BIAS
As vital and effective as heuristics are, in certain circumstances they also lead to bias. A bias is when our mental shortcuts create a rut or flaw in our thinking that favours a preferred pattern over something new or different. We all have biases. Our aim is to become aware of our biases and understand how they affect our perception of the world and influence our decision making.
Building off of the heuristics I mentioned above, let’s explore how they can turn into bias.
Familiarity Heuristic: the pattern of favouring that which is familiar over something novel.
Bias - Status Quo: A preference for the current state of affairs or our comfort zone. An example here is that we are in an abusive relationship and instead of leaving, we remain with the person because it is familiar.
This bias is about remaining in our rut or pattern of thinking, not because it is a good option, but because it is familiar.
Representativeness Heuristic: the shortcut of grouping objects by similarity and organizing them based around the category prototype (e.g. like goes with like)
Bias - Stereotyping: the unconscious attribution of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group. An example is when I see a professional soccer player and assume they are a bit of a ‘prima donna’ who cares about exclusive cars, fancy haircuts and the trappings of the rich.
This bias shows our lack of nuance, lumping individuality into the whole and ignoring how each thing, object, person is unique.
We all have biases. We all have preferential patterns of thinking and ingrained ways of doing things. Reader, take a minute to begin understanding yours ...
SOLUTION
The solution, my friends, is to become more aware of our biases and heuristics. We want to occasionally bring them up from our subconscious System 1 thinking into our conscious System 2 thinking. This illuminates how our mental shortcuts affect our decision making and our perception of the world. From this awareness, we can use them to greatest effect or tweak them for improvement.
I have identified three actions to take when considering our heuristics and biases:
Probe your Patterns - reader, take a moment to understand your patterns and habits. What are your preferences? How do you respond in a certain situation? What shortcuts do you take? It takes time to shift an ingrained way of doing things, but it is possible to adjust our heuristics and biases.
Longcut - a shortcut, by its nature, is choosing a shorter and faster route to the destination. I urge you to occasionally take the long way around, as this will prompt new learnings, understandings and help your brain decide whether the shortcut you currently use is in fact the best option!
Examine the Data - our brains work with the information we give them. We get this information from our experience as we walk through life. Some of the information we have discovered on our own, some has been taught to us by our parents, peers, or society at large. Reader, I implore you to occasionally examine your data and ask; where did you learn what you learned? Is it valid and valuable?
CODEX OF COGNITIVE BIASES
This is a resource created by Buster Benson and John Manoogian III, which captures 150+ Cognitive Biases on one document and is an incredible resource for learning biases and heuristics.
Brilliant, you now have a couple of actions which can help you discover and adjust your mental shortcuts.
CONCLUSION
Rightio, here is what we learned:
Heuristics are Mental Shortcuts.
They work in our subconscious mind (think of the Stage Analogy - Backstage)
We need heuristics to function and make sense of all the information we receive in our day to day lives.
Heuristics lead to bias in certain situations.
A Bias is when we favour a preferred pattern of thinking over something new or different.
Solution - occasionally lift heuristics and biases to our Conscious System 2 Thinking.
Probe our Patterns, Take the Longcut, and Examine the Data.
Wishing you all an abundance of efficiency, synchronized brains and sweet joy!
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