Making bad judgements and cognitive fallacies is a part of life. Many times however, these bad judgements can be consistent, and that’s what makes a cognitive fallacy. Believing you are right when it has been proven than you are wrong is not uncommon when it comes to self coherence. Kahneman explains this well in “Don’t Blink” as he talks about 7 cognitive fallacies that can be noticed anywhere.
In my own experience, I’ve had my own bad judgements. Years ago, roughly 9 or 10 if I’m correct, I was visiting the beach with my family. As we were about to pay for parking, the lady working there said that the waves were very big and the undertow was dangerously strong, and told us that it is highly recommended to stay out of the water. And, well, she wasn’t kidding. The waves were twice the size of me, and they crashed right onto the shore. I recognized this and decided to listen. At first. So I decided to just play in the sand with my siblings, making sandcastles and creating animals out of the sand. I decided to look at the water and it had appeared to slow down. And me, being a naive child, decided that it was safe to go in. I looked towards my family, all of which were tanning, so they didn’t notice me sprinting towards the water. I got about waist deep, until I felt a sharp pull at my legs. I was brought off my feet and swiftly went to what would be deeper water. Only the ground didn’t get lower. I was lifted up into a wave that was three times my size, or at least that’s how big it felt. Everything seemed to just slow down. My head emerged at the top of the wave, and I noticed all the faces on the beach were looking straight at me. That’s when I shot downwards. The waves threw me down with seismic power and slammed me against the soft sandy beach. I couldn’t breath for a short while because the impact had winded me. Thankfully, I had not gotten injured in any way. Perhaps if I had landed on a harder surface, more damage would have been done. That afternoon I thought about how bad of a mistake that was, and for a while I never wanted to swim again. But now I love swimming and it has become a common for me to jump into the water with big waves again because I now know my limits.
Kahneman tells us a lot about cognitive fallacies in “Don’t Blink”. He introduces this concept by explaining his first bad judgement to the reader. When he trained army recruits to see who could potentially be a commanding officer in the near future, he would give them a difficult task with people they didn’t know. They would see who could take charge in situations that required teamwork. When he sent the results to his own commanding officer, he was told that his feedback was useless, and didn’t benefit anyone. Although he was told this, he was too focused on believing he was right, and continued doing the same thing over and over. He notices that this is a cognitive fallacy, or a mental mistake. Although his story was much different than my own, they both revolve around making a mistake. This sort of belief is based off a story one makes inside their own head. This story is to give coherence to support a mistake, to help one believe that they are not wrong. This may leave out details to help the one making the story, and creates a bias, because they refuse to believe that they’re wrong. Kahneman claims that everyone does it, however some cases can be a little more noticeable than others.
Making Cognitive fallacies is not essentially the worst thing that can happen to someone, but bad decisions are important for learning new lessons. Being wrong can show you where you went wrong and how you may be able to change or maybe even fix it. Being able to notice your own mistakes can prove that you will make errors, and these errors will better you as a choice maker and even as a person.
