Although I do not notice them sometimes, biases are ingrained in my everyday decisions. These biases are some of the most interesting phenomenon in my life. At times, my brain makes me believe that I am capable, valuable and special. The biases I make help me deal with the challenges and struggles of everyday life. The most important thing is that they help me overcome second-guessing or feeling, as I do not know something.
Various types of biases may affect my decision-making occasionally. The most prevalent is information bias. This happens whenever I enter into a situation with a preconceived idea and tend to concentrate on confirming my already made-up mind (Kahneman, 2011). The bias has affected me in various ways, especially concerning politics in the country. I can remember that I had already formed an opinion regarding Hillary Clinton that she was a cunning and deceiving presidential contender. Therefore, I only sought for mistakes out of her throughout her campaigns and debates. In fact, I put a lot of value on the bad things about her and very little value on the good things that she said (Kahneman et al. 2017). To say the truth, I only concentrated on her past mistakes. All this time, I ignored all the negative things that other Presidential contenders had said or done. However, this seems to be a major element in any political race because any avid supporter of a politician never wants to be wrong in the opinion they have already formed of their chosen politician. But, this bias is tough to break because it entails releasing that I am committing it and having the ability to admit that my opinion might be wrong (Kahneman, 2011).
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Hindsight bias may also plague my everyday decision-making. Hindsight bias is a psychological term that means the tendency of a person to overestimate his/her ability to have predicted a result, which may not possibly have been, predicted (Kahneman et al. 2017). Indeed, hindsight bias is just like saying things such as “I knew it” (Kahneman et al. 2017) whenever a result, either unexpected or expected, happens. This makes one hold the belief that she/he made an accurate prediction. This occurs almost every day in my life. The most recent example was when I had one of the exam questions wrong. When the teacher brought back the exam sheets, I told myself, “I knew it was the opposite” (Kahneman et al. 2017). This is bias because if I knew the answer was the opposite, I would have chosen it. After this exam, I learned that I assumed to know things, which were wrong.
Relationships are a delicate matter. In my case, whenever I am in a relationship, I tend to undermine things that I want to ignore while I overstate those that I want to see (Janser et al. 2007). For instance, I have this habit of having a negative attitude towards my partner. In essence, I often choose to ignore all the positive things that she says or does and focus on the faults in her. This has caused some disastrous effects in my life because I always end up damaging my relationships or turning a good relationship into a bad one.
Biases are present in my daily decision making although they are very hard to recognize or even rid them from my thought process. However, I must understand that these biases may elicit some disastrous effects in some cases. Therefore, after learning about them, I must try as much as possible to rid them from my mind and decision-making process. This will help me make more decisions and judgments.
References
Janser, M. J., Army War College (U.S.). & Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, D.C.). (2007). Cognitive biases in military decision-making . Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow . London: Penguin Books.
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., Tversky, A., & Cambridge University Press. (2017). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
