Friday, October 9, 2015

Psychology says...

Have a graph.

That's a link to a graphical summary of some cognitive biases in Social Psychology.  Also a number of things I try to avoid or take into account on a regular basis. 

I try to avoid or sidestep #13, the placebo effect, the most.  A lot of the therapies and treatments I use aren't heavily backed by scientific studies, mainly because no one wants to fund those studies.  Research goes where the money is, mostly, so therapies like LENS and more natural remedies don't get a lot of attention or care.  This is extra unfortunate when those therapies actually do work, but you have to be careful; the power of belief is truly immense. 

#8, the conservatism bias, is hard for me to forgive sometimes.  I think that's because I'm still young and relatively flexible in thought.  Hopefully not because I'm an unaware hypocrite,  But I need to be more accepting, because there's been some evidence that people who're more conservative in nature are literally wired differently (brainwise) than liberal-minded people like me. 

#14, the innovation bias, sums up a lot of mistakes companies like Apple and Google make.  In some cases the product is actually excellent and just doesn't catch on, but... does anyone actually need an Apple Watch?  I don't.  Could just be me, I guess. 

#17 and #18, in my opinion, sum up a lot of the problems with human interaction.  We come to a discussion with an agenda in mind already: Us vs. Them.  The "Us" varies by the situation, but "Them" concepts are often very flat, unrealistic ideas.  Stereotyping is particularly annoying if people are expecting you to be Rain Man or entirely nonverbal. 

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