Lesson 4 Look into Your Mind
Psychology Behind Decision Making
French philosopher Descartes said, "____ our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power." But is that true?
In the past, it was believed that human beings indeed had power ____ how we thought.
According to this view, anyone could be like ____ Holmes.
You ____ had to think rationally, unaffected by biases and emotions.
However, as we have discovered more and more about the ____ and how it works, we have learned that this is not the case.
The problem is that thinking is the work of the brain, and the ____ brain, as it turns out, does not like to be rational.
In fact, it is structured in a way that it often prefers relying on a set of illogical thinking patterns instead of ____ reason all the time.
The brain’s illogical thinking patterns that make ____ judgments are called cognitive bias.
There are many cognitive biases, but here are some of the most ____ known.
Confirmation Bias
I’m a strict vegetarian. I’m convinced that my decision not to eat meat is rational and ____ on objective research.
It seems to me that the scientific evidence for the ____ of a vegetarian diet are numerous.
Studies in favor of eating meat, on the other hand, ____ few and unreliable.
I’m a strong advocate for a balanced meat and ____ diet.
I do not doubt that my belief is the most reasonable ____, considering all the scientific evidence.
It seems to me that the ____ reliable studies show that avoiding meat can be dangerous for one’s health.
The benefits of a vegetarian diet, on the ____ hand, are questionable at best.
Both Kevin and Sara are affected by the ____ bias.
The confirmation bias is a ____ of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases.
It impacts both ____ people gather information and how they interpret and recall it.
The confirmation bias makes people unconsciously seek information that matches their own ____, just as Kevin and Sara have done.
When people encounter evidence that contradicts their view, the confirmation bias helps ____ to interpret it in a way that supports their existing opinion or to dismiss it as unreliable.
Thus, the confirmation ____ prevents us from looking at situations objectively, leading us to make poor or faulty choices.
The confirmation ____ can appear in many forms.
Racism, which is a dangerous human attribute that is essentially found in all ____, is an obvious example.
So are prejudices against ____, gender, social class, and ageism.
We even become firm in our loyalty to ____ parties and view them simply in “us”or “them” terms.
____, we become hard wired to engage in faulty thinking.
It is almost impossible to overcome the confirmation bias ____.
However, Charles Darwin came up with a golden rule to avoid falling into the trap of the ____ bias.
He always noted observations that were ____ to what he thought and made an effort to investigate them.
Paying extra attention to claims that challenge your ____ and attempting to discredit your own beliefs allow you to come to a conclusion in a more objective way.
Bandwagon Effect
Are you going to watch that movie that is currently number one at the box office, even though you ____ dislike superhero movies?
Is that popular brand of crispy chips also your new ____ snack, even though you usually hate oily snacks?
Do you love the new hairstyle that most teenagers are wearing now, even ____ you thought it looked silly before?
If so, think again! You may be ____ the influence of the bandwagon effect.
In psychology, the bandwagon effect refers to a phenomenon in which ____ do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs.
Since human beings are social animals, the ____ to conform is a part of our nature.
____, the bandwagon effect may have negative effects.
It ____ cause people to vote for an already popular political candidate without carefully examining his or her character and policies.
Worse, voters may be tricked into believing a certain ____ is popular and into supporting him or her.
This is how ____ Hitler came to power early in his political career.
When the Nazi party was new and unknown, he used ____ broadcasts to make his party appear important and popular, and this convinced many German people to vote for the Nazis without knowing much about what the party really stood for.
____ Hitler and the Nazi party became popular, it was even easier to gain more and more supporters.
People wanted to support the ____ party because their friends supported the party, in spite of its horrible beliefs and actions.
Doing what most people do is not always ____.
Sometimes products and ideas are popular ____ they are indeed good, and unpopular ones are avoided for good reasons.
However, this is not always the ____.
That is why it is advisable to be ____ of the bandwagon effect and guard yourself against it, even if you eventually decide that “most people” are right.
As ____ Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
Framing Effect
Framing is presenting an issue, argument, or ____ in a certain way so that it will influence the audience’s feelings or opinions.
When such manipulation succeeds in altering the ____ decisions or judgments, it is called the framing effect.
We encounter framing effects everywhere in our daily ____.
One of the areas where it is ____ useful and constantly used is business.
For ____, a customer may decide not to buy a gym membership that costs 500,000 won a year because it sounds too expensive.
However, if the same membership is advertised as only 1,370 won a day, that same consumer may consider it cheap and ____ purchase it.
The framing effect is also common in the mass media, where it often has a decisive impact on ____ opinion.
____ the fact that EU migrants cost the UK government ₤408.12 per second in public expenditures and contribute ₤463.35 per second in revenue.
A newspaper may have a headline saying “EU migrants ____ the UK government ₤408.12 per second in public expenditures” and add the rest later in the article, which will immediately lead many readers to have a hostile attitude toward immigrants.
Another newspaper ____ write “EU migrants contribute ₤463.35 per second in revenue” as a headline and put the rest later, which will generate a completely different response among its readers.
There are several ways to ____ yourself from being influenced by the framing effect.
First, you can reframe the ____ in your own way.
For example, you can calculate how much a gym membership would cost ____ month or per year even though the gym owner advertises it as 1,370 won a day.
____ way is to consider options and possibilities that are not included in the information.
Some questions are framed in such a way that you are ____ only two choices: Is competition good or bad?
When you are faced with a question like this, it is important to remember that the effects of competition may differ according to the ____.
These are only a few examples of many cognitive ____.
____, most of us are influenced by cognitive biases.
What makes them dangerous is that they prevent us from ____ how unreasonable and unfair ideas may be.
____, accepting that we are not always right or logical is the first step to fight cognitive biases.
Once we admit that our opinions may be ____, it becomes easier to accept the information that we do not like.
Only then will we truly have the power ____ our thoughts that Descartes believed we had.