Cognitive Bias - Tools For When Shortcuts Become Barriers

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Our brains are busy! They don’t have time to look at every piece of information as brand new. They have to help us escape that predator or make that deal! To survive (and thrive!) our brains have evolved to quickly employ a range of tricky shortcuts to help us rapidly process diverse information and be ready to roll!

But what happens when our brains end up tricking us instead? Focusing us on information that prevents us from seeing a situation accurately; keeping us solving for the wrong problem; or leading us blithely into false conclusions? This is the world of cognitive bias. For mediators, and anyone trying to unlock conflict, the key to resolution may well rest on how well we are able to spot these brain tricks in ourselves and others - and on how accomplished we are at responding to them!

Much has been written on the subject of cognitive biases by people more expert than me, so I’ll not reinvent the wheel with a long blog post. Instead I will just recommend a couple of my new favorite free resources for ongoing learning and skill-building!

First up, the Cognitive Bias Lab! This is a 100% free interactive and collaborative learning space to explore cognitive biases featuring: short and helpful definitions; real life examples; and online games to practice recognition and coping skills! For those who are up for a little AI playtime, the Cognitive Bias Lab also has a custom GPT “Cognitive Bias Coach” which provides direct conversational coaching.

Second- The Decision Lab! While the Decision Lab is a private business, it offers free access to excellent learning tools under its “Resources” tab, including detailed descriptions of different cognitive biases (with real life examples, layered breakdowns about why a specific bias may pop up and what its impacts may be, etc.), articles (with a behavioral science bent), and their own podcast, The Decision Corner.

I hope you will enjoy these resources as much as I have! Hard to beat free! If you have other free resources you would like to recommend, post them below.

UNCERTAIN BRAIN WITH OVERWHELMING INPUTS

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