Tools and methods for preventing cognitive errors (bias)

Introduction

Did you know that our decisions and perceptions are influenced by systematic errors that we make inadvertently?
Here is a course that will help you discover and avoid them!

Presentation

Cognitive errors, or cognitive distortions, are errors that we make inadvertently and automatically when evaluating situations and when making the decisions to face them: learning how to prevent them and reduce the effects is very important to make your ability to think and act more effectively.
This course is designed to provide significant examples of situations in which, either on our own or in a group, we tend to commit errors that lead to irrational behaviours, errors of perception, inaccurate evaluations, incorrect decisions; furthermore, the course help learn how to face them effectively.

Purpose

Help participants increase their effectiveness by acquiring awareness of cognitive errors, by learning techniques that help reduce or prevent their effect when evaluating critical situations and the related decision-making processes.

Who may find this course interesting?

The topics covered interest all company roles: managers, salespeople, technicians, project managers, designers, lawyers, researchers, consultants, controllers are only some of the roles that may be interested.
The course is particularly useful to people involved in critical decision-making processes, in problem-solving and all types of change or innovation projects.
In general, the course is crucial for people who want to enhance their performance in the role management.

Contents

Given the high number of cognitive errors, the course will cover the most common ones or those that the participants want to overcome; the analysis will be carried out during the co-designing phase.

Some key points

• Cognitive errors (bias), algorithms, heuristics: let’s go through their meaning and the relationships among them
• The impact of cognitive biases on evaluation processes and our daily decisions

Examples of cognitive errors we make to support our “ego”

• Self-serving bias: our success is due to our qualities, our failures are due to circumstance or chance
• Barnum effect: to think that something applies to us when it does not
• Wishful thinking: looking for confirmation for what we want to believe is real
• I always knew it: when the past appears clear when it is not
• The falsification of memories: believe to be true what never happened
• False consensus effect: when we believe that everyone thinks about something the way we do
• The liking bias: when fondness plays a bad trick on us
• Anchoring: when we believe that the only information we have is everything
• The illusion of control: when we overestimate our ability to influence events

Example of cognitive errors we make in a group

• Groupthink: when we are all “too much” in agreement, it is difficult to express dissent
• The “others” are bad: when a name is enough to create an enemy
• The herd effect: when following the others is reassuring, because “everyone does it”
• The error of “the person who knows about it”: why experts find it difficult to welcome the point of view of those who are less informed or prepared

Examples of cognitive errors caused by the aversion to change and the need for order

• Protect the “status quo” even when it is not appropriate
• The illusory correlation: looking for order where there isn’t any

Examples of cognitive errors caused by the aversion to loss

• Continue to lose money: invest in a losing idea because “we have already invested a lot”
• Never sell at a lower price: loss is too painful
• The negative effect: if you were richer, you wouldn’t also be happier
• The bad purchase: awkward attempts to justify an unjustified expense

Examples of cognitive errors caused by the attribution of value

• The halo effect: when one aspect of a situation ends up influencing the global vision
• When evaluating a specific situation, I am always right, and better than you

Examples of cognitive errors caused by the aversion to probability

• The trap of typicality: why a librarian is better educated than a barber
• Why five times “heads” in a row does not mean that “tails” is more probable the 6th time

Tools and behaviours that help us overcome and reduce cognitive errors.

Training material

• Course slides
• Exercises
• Table with a classification of cognitive errors
• Table with cognitive errors and the indication of attitudes and behaviours that help prevent them or reduce their effects
• Articles concerning cognitive errors
• Movies and bibliography

The teaching method

This course has been designed and structured to promote complete immersion in the topic and the individual experience.
The participants will face situations through exercises and video clips that reproduce moments similar to the ones they face daily.
Would you like to know more about the teaching method? Click here.

Final test and certificate

At the end of the course, participants take a test; after passing it, they may download their certificate of attendance.

Duration

• Two days, 8 hours each
• Two or more days depending on the learning needs of the participants and how in-depth the topics are covered.