The illusions of the brain. Cognitive distortions due to excess information

The Wikipedia list has 175 cognitive biases . Of course, this is not a complete list of the ways in which our brain deceives itself. Such deception is not difficult at all, because a significant part of the mental processes in a person occurs without being displayed in consciousness . Thus, it becomes possible to directly address these basic processes without affecting the conscious part.

In working with the masses, professionals use ways to bypass the censorship mechanism , which in the brain filters information from the outside world. For example, if you strengthen information emotionally , then a verbal or non-verbal message will more easily pass through the built-in filters of consciousness and remain permanently in the memory of the information consumer.

A large list of cognitive distortions on Wikipedia is classified rather vaguely. There are four thematic groups:
')

• Distortions related to behavior and decision making.
• Distortions related to probabilities and stereotypes.
• Socially caused distortions.
• Mistakes due to memory errors.

Such a classification makes it impossible to clearly represent the causes of these distortions. That is, from the classification it is not entirely clear with what methods it is possible to exploit various cognitive distortions, why they arise. In addition, many distortions are duplicated in the list under different names.

There is another way to classify distortions, if you more specifically focus on the reason for the failure in thinking, which causes an incorrect perception of reality. If we classify them in this way (by reason), then the distortions can also be divided into four groups, but now they become more logical and understandable.

Four problems that cause cognitive distortion:

1. Too much information.
2. Not enough meaning (polysemy).
3. The need to act quickly.
4. Filtering information for memorization: the brain always prefers to memorize a simpler and clearer concept, rather than a complex and ambiguous one. Even if the second concept is more correct and objective.

Perhaps of particular interest is the first group of distortions associated with an excess of information. Moreover, the other groups are conceptually related to it. It seems that instant filtering, censorship and selection of information for memorization is the main problem that we face in the modern era, when the amount of information is too large. Because of this, probably, most of the cognitive distortions and incorrect perception of the surrounding reality arise.

The first group can be divided into five subgroups.

1. We notice things that are already fixed in memory or often repeated. This is a large group of distortions that are often exploited on television. Repeated repetition of the same practically guarantees that a person will miss the attention of a detail that is mentioned in passing only once. In addition, the repeated repetition of lies increases the likelihood that they will believe in it .

Examples:

• Accessibility heuristics is an estimate of how more likely things are more accessible in memory.
  
• The systematic error of attention - the dependence of human perception on repeated thoughts. If you constantly think about one topic, you often pay attention to the news on this topic.
  
• The illusion effect of truth is the tendency to believe that information is true if we have heard it many times.
  
• The effect of familiarity with an object is the tendency of people to express unreasonable sympathy for an object only because they are familiar with it.
  
• Out of context forgetting is the difficulty of remembering information in the absence of context (associated memories). Conversely, a meeting with a hint immediately pulls the whole chain of memories. For example, if you were on vacation and met a rare car there, then a meeting with such a car after many years will draw from the memory a chain of “forgotten” memories of a vacation. The effect also works on the emotional level: it is easier to extract some information from memory if you cause “anchor” emotions that are contextually related to this information.
  
• The illusion of frequency , also known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, is immediately after a person has learned about a new thing or idea, as it seems to him, it begins to appear everywhere. Occurs because after a person has learned about something new, his consciousness begins to follow the references, with the result that you notice it wherever it is. Each appearance of a thing only reinforces the confidence of the consciousness that it began to appear everywhere.
  
• Empathy gap is a phenomenon when a person underestimates the influence of visceral factors on his behavior. These factors include hunger, thirst, sexual desire, drug cravings (alcohol), physical pain, and strong emotions. From the side it seems that a person acts impulsively, irrationally, out of control. A person himself can find a "rational" explanation for his actions, ignoring the true subconscious reason for them.
  
• Underestimating inaction is the tendency of people to underestimate the consequences of inaction compared to an action with a similar result. An example of such a phenomenon is anti-vaccination, where parents prefer the risk of getting complications from the disease and the risk of getting the complications of vaccination, although the risk of getting sick is much higher than the risk of complications from vaccination.
  
• Error base percent - a person ignores the overall frequency of the event and focuses on specific information. Example: breathalyzers show erroneous intoxication in 5% of cases, but there are no false-negative positives. The policeman stops the driver and checks him with an alcohol tester. The device indicates that the driver is drunk. Question: what about the probability that the driver is really drunk?

2. People tend to notice and memorize rather special, bizarre and funny images than uncanny or unfunny. In other words, the brain exaggerates the importance of unusual or surprising information. On the other hand, we tend to ignore information that seems mediocre or expected.

Examples:

• The effect of Restorff (isolation effect) - in a number of similar objects it is easier to remember the one that stands out among the others. For example, a number is more easily remembered in a series of letters (vts5kekvr), and not in a number of other numbers (35856896).
  
• The effect of superiority pictures - pictures are easier to remember than words. The effect is confirmed by numerous scientific experiments.
  
• The effect of self-reference is the tendency of people to encode information in memory in memory in various ways, depending on how much it affects a person personally. The effect of self-reference was investigated in the scientific work " Self-reference and the encoding of personal information " (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 35 (9), Sep 1977, 677-688). Specialists in cognitive neuroscience have identified specific areas in the prefrontal cortex, median structures and parietal lobe, which are used if a person believes that the information affects him personally. The effect of self-reference has numerous manifestations. For example, a person remembers information much better if it concerns him personally. In advertising, a person perceives information better if it is advertised by people like him. A person remembers better birthdays that are close in time to his own birthday. Slender women are better than overweight women perceive the images of other slender women and models (see the research paper "Self-referencing and consumer evaluations of larger-sized female models: .doi: 10.1007 / s11002-007-9014-1).
  
• The bias towards the negative is that things of a negative nature, even under the condition of equal power, are perceived by a person more strongly than things of a positive nature. This applies to thoughts, emotions, social relationships, painful / traumatic events, etc. Therefore, the audience of television news pays more attention to negative news, rather than to positive events. The negative is perceived brighter, more clearly and well remembered. The effect is also manifested in the perception of other people: one “negative” characteristic of a person can erase in the perception many of his positive features. Thus, a person without any positive features at all (for example, a faceless politician that has just appeared) has an advantage over competitors who has many positive features and one negative (that is, almost any other politician). In decision making and management, this cognitive distortion greatly influences human behavior. Businessmen tend to minimize profits, just to guarantee the absence of losses . Any short-term loss is perceived extremely emotionally, even if it does not objectively affect the total monthly / annual profit. For example, in the stock market, people are willing to significantly increase risks and continue investing in falling paper in order to average a position and get out of a loss, although rational behavior would be to simply fix a loss and get out of paper. This is an irrational desire to "recoup." Curiously, some scientific studies show that this cognitive distortion disappears with age. Moreover, in people at a mature age, even the opposite cognitive distortion is sometimes observed - a bias towards positive. That is, older people perceive negative information as a matter of course and do not react to it, but perceive positive information more strongly (see "The Negativity bias is eliminated in older adults: " . Psychology and Aging. 21 (4): 815–820. Doi: 10.1037 / 0882-7974.21.4.815).

3. People tend to notice changes. At the same time, the brain incorrectly assesses the value of new information in the context of the direction of change (positive / negative), rather than objectively overestimating new information independently of the previous one.

Examples:

• The binding effect is a cognitive distortion of the estimate of numerical values ​​with a shift towards the initial approximation. The effect is used by retail chains, indicating the price of several pieces of the product even in the absence of a quantity discount. Or Internet sites that offer to donate an arbitrary amount, but at the same time give an example of a larger donation. As studies have shown, "tying" people for example of a large donation, the average amount of arbitrary donations is higher than without binding.
  
• Money illusion - the tendency of people to perceive the nominal value of money, and not their real value. Cognitive distortion is expressed in the fact that people are not fully aware of how the real value of money changes every day. Because of this, they inadequately perceive reality, including the change in nominal prices for goods, inflation. For example, many people do not understand that with a change in the dollar exchange rate against the ruble, their salary actually decreased de facto while maintaining its nominal value in rubles. The authorities can encourage this cognitive distortion among citizens with statements like “No need to follow the dollar rate,” etc.
  
• The effect of framing is a phenomenon of a different reaction to the same choice, depending on how it is presented: as a positive or negative choice. The glass can be half empty or half full. The choice is the same, but perceived in different ways. For example, penalties for being late act on people more effectively than the bonus for timely actions (obviously, the cognitive distortion “bias towards negative” also acts here). A study in the judicial system showed that defendants more often confess if they are presented as the first step towards a subsequent release after his release, and not as the last step in a free life before the beginning of imprisonment.
  
• The Weber-Fechner law is an empirical psycho-physiological law, which consists in the fact that the intensity of the sensation of something is directly proportional to the logarithm of the intensity of the stimulus. For example, a chandelier in which eight light bulbs erroneously seem as brighter than a four-light chandelier, as much as a four-light chandelier is brighter than a two-light chandelier.
  
• Conservatism (in the psychological sense) is a cognitive distortion of new information if it contradicts the well-established beliefs of a person.

Actually, the cognitive distortion of "conservatism" (in psychology) can be distinguished into a whole separate category.

4. People are attracted by information that confirms their beliefs. This is a really big and important category. It is also related to the way to filter new data. If there is a lot of information around, then the person chooses basically the one that confirms his opinion.

Examples:

• Propensity to confirm his point of view .
  
• The distortion in the perception of the choice made is the tendency to retroactively attribute the positive qualities to the object or action that the person has chosen. In hindsight, there are "rational" reasons why a person made this choice.
  
• Selective perception - the tendency of people to pay attention to those elements of the environment that are consistent with their expectations, and ignore the rest.
  
• The effect of an ostrich is an attempt to ignore the negative information associated with the choice made.

5. People tend to better notice the mistakes of others than at home. Even take this list of cognitive distortions. It seems that perceptual distortions are more likely to be present to others, and not to you personally.

Examples:

• Blind Spot Prejudice - recognizing perceptual distortions in other people, not in oneself. Well researched in the scientific papers of Emily Pronin .
  
• Naive cynicism is a cognitive distortion, a form of psychological egoism, when a person naively expects more egoistic behavior from others than they really are. The chain of reasoning of naive cynicism is as follows: “I have no prejudices - If you disagree with me, then you have prejudices. “Your intentions / actions reflect your selfish prejudices.” Naive cynicism is opposed to the opposite cognitive distortion - naive realism.
  
• Naive realism is the tendency of a person to believe that we objectively see the world around us as it is. People who disagree with this are perceived as uninformed, irrational, or at the mercy of prejudice. According to naive scientific realism, the theory recognized by the scientific community has absolute truth, that is, it gives a complete and accurate image of the described system of objects.

Such a classification of cognitive distortions associated with an overabundance of information seems more logical than in Wikipedia. At least, the main causes of the distortion are immediately visible. Although this classification still remains fairly conditional, because many of the distortions in the mind are not due to one, but several reasons at once.