Category: Cognitive Errors
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In this final post in our series on cognitive errors , we provide a general summary of some of the key approaches that facilitators or others might use to keep dialogues on difficult issues going even when cognitive errors threaten to shut down those dialogues. What facilitators should not do is point out that something…
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In this post we review four additional cognitive errors that occur in our political discussions. These are: Fairness fallacies: This error is present when individuals or groups resent others for not meeting their personal standards of what is fair or not fair, or become angry when “doing the right thing” is not rewarded. The fairness…
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There are several other cognitive errors that regularly appear in our political discussions, including those related to gun violence. These include the following: Mind reading: Although there is little evidence that most of us can accurately read minds, many indulge in that exercise anyway. Mind reading sounds like this: “I know what they’re thinking, they’re…
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Continuing our series on cognitive errors, we review two in this post that often lead to flare-ups of incivility. These are catastrophizing and personalization. Catastrophizing is evidenced by a dramatic anticipation of disaster and corresponding defensive reaction. For example, +”They’re preparing for armed rebellion and ready to destroy our country” or +”The ultimate goal of…
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Polarized Thinking is a cognitive error that is a close cousin to over-generalization and filtering. This error is very common in our political culture. “Polarized thinking” involves forcing complex issues into “either/or” pairings. This forced pairing then encourages debate between which of the paired options is better and discourages exploration of the information, experiences, or values…