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You might think you’re in full control of your decisions and thoughts, but how often are they guided by something deeper, something you don’t even notice? Here are 21 cognitive mind traps, fallacies, biases, and other phenomena lurking in your brain. These quirks are hard-wired into all human minds. You might go through life completely unaware that these thinking errors and mental shortcuts influence your daily decisions. You can’t turn them off or delete them, but being one of the few who can spot them and understand the situations in which they arise is the first step to becoming a more rational thinker.

Mind Trap 1: Cognitive Dissonance

A fox sneaks up to a vine, eyes some juicy, purple, overripe grapes, and tries to get at them. But they’re too high. Frustrated, he tries again, leaping upward but getting no closer. He leaps a third time, lands hard with a thud, and still no grapes. The fox turns up his nose and says, “I don’t care. Only grapes that aren’t even ripe. Why would I want sour grapes?” Then he walks back into the forest.

This is one of Aesop’s fables, where we get the term “sour grapes.” The fox had three choices:

1. Get to the grapes.
2. Admit he wasn’t smart or skilled enough to get them.
3. Reinterpret the situation and create a new belief in conflict with the first one.

Choosing the third option leads to cognitive dissonance—holding two conflicting beliefs. If you interview for a job and don’t get it, instead of thinking the other person was better, you tell yourself the job wasn’t good or the interviewer was unfair. When people can’t get what they want, they often tell themselves they didn’t want it anyway.

If you think all rich people are greedy and evil, but you also want to be rich, the dissonance causes discomfort, stress, and anxiety. If it gets intense, it can lead to depression. If you notice dissonance, you need to choose one belief. As Rolf Dobelli says, “You can play the clever fox all you want—but you’ll never get the grapes that way.”

Mind Trap 2: The Spotlight Effect

You arrive five minutes late to the office and feel like everyone is judging you. It’s your first day at the gym, and you think everyone is watching you. You spill a bit of sauce on your shirt and feel embarrassed, thinking the whole party will notice.

The spotlight effect is the phenomenon where people believe others are observing them more than they are. People are rarely as interested in you and your actions as you think, so stop overestimating how much people notice you and reduce your anxiety.

Mind Trap 3: The Anchoring Effect

When guessing something, like the population of Russia, we use anchors. We start with something we know for sure, then explore the unfamiliar territory. Unfortunately, we use anchors even when we don’t need to.

Consider these questions: Is the height of the tallest redwood tree more or less than 1,200 feet? What’s your best guess about its height? If we asked Group A these questions and Group B different questions, we’d get different answers because of the anchoring effect.

The anchoring effect doesn’t just apply to informative numbers. According to Kahneman, “…anchors that are obviously random can be just as effective as potentially informative anchors.” An experiment on German judges showed this: Judges were asked to roll loaded dice (adding up to 3 or 9) and then decide a sentence for a shoplifting woman. Those who rolled a 9 gave an average of eight months, while those who rolled a 3 gave five months. The anchoring effect influenced their judgments.

In sales and negotiations, anchors are used all the time. Car salesmen set high prices from the start,  so their desired price seems like a good deal. The $150 dress at the front of the store sets the anchor for the $50 dress on sale at the back. Online stores, salary negotiations, and real estate deals all use anchoring. It’s a powerful bias. You can’t turn it off, but you can remind yourself of your vulnerability to it and set your own mental anchors before entering any sales or negotiation environment.

“They’ve sent us the asking price for the home. Let’s not let this number influence our thinking. Set it aside. Let’s perform our due diligence and arrive at our own number.”

“Our objective in this negotiation is to move first and get them anchored to this number.”

Mind Trap 4: The Halo Effect

What do you think about Folan and Alan?

1. folan is intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, envious.
2. Alan is envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, intelligent.

If you’re like most people, you see Folanin a better light than Alan, even though the traits mentioned are precisely the same. Sequence matters. More weight is given to the first piece of information we receive. This first piece helps us quickly create a story of the person or situation in our minds.

Sure, Folan is stubborn and envious, but that’s because he’s intelligent and wants to win in business. Yes, Alan is smart, but he uses that intelligence in envious ways. The halo effect occurs when a single, initial aspect of a person or thing determines and affects or “outshines” how we see the full picture.

When you start dating someone, both parties are on their best behavior. You develop a halo of positive thoughts around this person. Small traits you dislike might begin to pop up but often go unnoticed because “the halo”—the positive emotions and the initial information you gathered about this person—blinds you to any negatives. The honeymoon phase of a relationship is when the halo effect influences your judgment the most.

If we learn someone graduated from a prestigious university, the halo effect distorts all other traits we attribute to that person without evidence. Bernie Madoff was the darling of Wall Street, a legendary investor. The amazing returns and reputation of his company were the halo that made people conclude his company must be trustworthy. The halo outshone the numbers that made no sense and the fact he was running the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.

Numerous studies show attractive people are perceived as nicer, more honest, and more intelligent. The halo effect is also in schools. If a student answers two essay questions and the teacher gives the first a high grade, they are prone to give the second a higher grade, and vice versa for low grades.

In the work environment, the standard practice is open discussions. Kahneman argues that it’s better to gather independent judgments before discussion because the opinions of the first people to talk get too much weight, especially if the boss speaks first.

Modern research supports the saying “first impressions last.” After meeting someone, our judgment of them can influence us long into the future. We jump to conclusions, and our perception of true characteristics is distorted by the halo effect. To combat this, move beyond first appearances and decorrelate error. Remember, your brain is trying to help you by making a complete story with limited information. The problem is these “mental shortcut stories” are often inaccurate.

“He knows nothing about her personality. He’s just going by how good-looking she is. He’s succumbing to the halo effect.”

“This new applicant graduated from Harvard. She doesn’t have any experience in a similar position, but I think we should interview her anyway.”

“Let’s gather ideas independently on this topic before the meeting. I don’t want my ideas to influence the group’s.”

Mind Trap 5: Gambler’s Fallacy

A coin is flipped three times, and it lands on heads each time. Now, you’re forced to wager thousands of dollars on the next toss. Would you bet on heads or tails? Most people would choose tails, although heads is equally likely. Why? We believe in some balancing force in the universe.

If asked which sequence is more probable, most pick the top one. But both sequences are equally probable. We underestimate the likelihood of streaks occurring by chance and believe something needs to change due to the gambler’s fallacy. But there’s no balancing force. The coin or ball can’t remember previous results.

Casinos love the gambler’s fallacy. It creates the illusion that gamblers can predict where “the balance” will go next. This fallacy applies to any sequence of decisions. That awkward feeling you get when you’ve answered five C’s in a row on a multiple-choice exam is this fallacy at work.

A University of Chicago review found asylum judges were 19% less likely to approve an asylum seeker if they had just approved the previous two. The same person applying for a loan was more likely to get approved if the previous two applicants were rejected and more likely to be rejected if the previous two applications were approved. Similar findings were found with baseball umpires.

Look closely at the independent and interdependent events around you. Independent events aren’t influenced by balancing forces of nature.

Mind Trap 6: The Contrast Effect

If you see leather seats for $3,000, they may seem expensive. If you’re buying an $80,000 car, the $3,000 leather seat upgrade seems like nothing. Research shows people will walk an extra 10 minutes to save $10 on food but not to save $10 on a $1,000 suit. It’s easy to think something is attractive, large, or expensive when it sits next to something ugly, small, or cheap. Absolute judgments can be difficult. Next time you go shopping, check if your decisions are influenced by the contrast effect.

Mind Trap 7: Confirmation Bias

You have a belief about something and search for evidence that supports it, reinforcing the belief. If you find evidence that doesn’t support it, you filter it out, and your brain “forgets” it. This is confirmation bias—the tendency to interpret new information to fit our existing beliefs. Our brains are hardwired to maintain beliefs, not accept new ones, because accepting new beliefs is draining.

Unlike the scientific method, which involves forming a hypothesis, gathering evidence, and testing it, most people prefer the easier route that makes them feel good. Jon starts with a belief, turns to Google, and subconsciously searches for confirming information, ignoring the rest. Philosophers of science tell us to try to refute the hypothesis, but rarely do people seek disconfirming evidence.

To make it worse, platforms tailor content to interests and browsing history, supercharging confirmation bias. We end up in echo chambers, reinforcing our convictions. The more you fit facts to your beliefs, the narrower your perspective until that narrow reality is all you see. Confirmation bias is the genesis of the “I’m always correct” ego, especially in political discourse. As opposing perspectives narrow, discourse becomes impossible because both sides only see evidence that confirms their beliefs.

Kahneman says, “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.” Repetition makes facts irrelevant. Echo chambers are flywheels for repetition, sharing, liking, and shutting down new beliefs. All divergent thinking disappears.

There’s no way to eliminate confirmation bias, only ways to reduce its effect. First, become aware it exists. If you have time, try to “think gray.” To be an independent thinker, explore gray areas and go beyond the group’s hive mind. Get information from various sources and avoid beliefs based on repetition or others’ influence. Confirmation bias narrows perspectives. Widen yours; the objective facts usually lie somewhere in the gray area.

Mind Trap 8: The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

You buy a certain brand of car and suddenly see it everywhere. You learn a new word or concept and start seeing it all the time. You think, “How is it possible I’ve never seen this word before, and now I see it three times a week?” The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is an illusion where increased awareness of something makes it seem like it appears more often.

This phenomenon is boosted by the recency effect, which inflates the importance of recent stimuli, and confirmation bias, which confirms these strange coincidences in your mind. Your brain is a master pattern recognition machine, always searching for meaning. It’s amazing how many patterns and stimuli your brain ignores because they’re not in your awareness. You see what you’re looking for. You’ve likely seen that word or car before, but your mind wasn’t interested in noticing it.

Mind Trap 9: Zeigarnik Effect

We remember incomplete tasks better than completed ones. Incomplete tasks stick in our memory longer. Initially, completing tasks was believed to be the only way to prevent the Zeigarnik effect from bothering us. But further research found that simply having or writing down a plan to complete the task is enough. If incomplete tasks stress you out, write a quick plan. Getting tasks out of your head and onto paper combats this effect and gives you peace of mind.

Mind Trap 10: The Paradox of Choice

Two experiments were conducted in a supermarket. In the first, 24 types of jam were available to test and buy at a discount. In the second, only six types of jam were available. The first experiment attracted 60% of shoppers, and 3% bought jam. The second attracted 40% of shoppers, and 30% bought jam. More shoppers were initially attracted to more variety, but with fewer choices, the supermarket sold 10 times more jam.

This is the paradox of choice. More choices are seen as positive, but our state becomes negative once the number exceeds a threshold, leading to paralysis and decision fatigue. The paradox is also in modern dating. In the past, you married people you met locally. Now, with too many choices, finding the perfect partner seems easier, but more optimal decisions come from fewer options.

With fewer options, people can weigh pros and cons and be satisfied with their choice. With many options, knowing the best one is harder, leading to regret. More options mean more comparison, diminishing satisfaction in the final choice. Even if the decision is excellent, opportunity costs of other options reduce satisfaction. Too many choices often lead to making no choice and giving up altogether.