Thinking Errors: How to Recognize and Overcome

Cognitive processing errors, also known as cognitive biases, refer to the systematic pattern of deviation from rationality in judgment. These biases can affect decision-making, problem-solving, and understanding of information. By recognizing these errors, individuals can strive to minimize their impact and make more informed choices.

We commonly rely on our cognitions as infallible functions of an intelligent brain. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Cognitions are not perfect. The underlying purpose of out thinking brain is not accuracy. Cognitions serve a function. Sometimes the function of homeostasis is at odds with accuracy. Examples of cognitive processing errors include misinterpreting sensory input, overlooking important details, inaccurately recalling information, or making flawed judgments. These errors can impact decision-making, learning, and overall cognitive functioning.

The Necessity of Mental Shortcuts

Mental shortcuts, also known as heuristics, are cognitive strategies that allow us to make quick judgments and decisions without engaging in extensive, deliberate analysis. Our brains are constantly bombarded with information, and processing every detail would be overwhelming and time-consuming. Heuristics provide a way to simplify complex situations and arrive at reasonably accurate conclusions with minimal effort. This is particularly useful in situations where time is limited or when dealing with familiar or predictable scenarios.

Efficiency Over Accuracy

These shortcuts work by relying on past experiences, patterns, and readily available information. For instance, if we see a person running towards us with a panicked expression, we might instinctively assume they are in danger and react accordingly. This quick judgment is based on our previous experiences and the association between facial expressions and emotional states. While heuristics can sometimes lead to biases or errors in judgment, they are generally efficient and effective in navigating the complexities of everyday life. They allow us to make rapid assessments, conserve cognitive resources, and respond quickly to potential threats or opportunities.

The speed advantage of mental shortcuts is crucial for survival and efficient functioning.

Susan David, Ph.D., a psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, explains:

“Life is just a hell of a lot easier when you don’t have to analyze every choice. If human beings lacked the predictive ability of heuristics and needed to consciously process every facial expression, conversation, and piece of information anew, we’d have no time for actually living life” (David, 2016).

In situations requiring immediate action, such as avoiding a collision or responding to a sudden threat, relying on heuristics can be the difference between safety and danger. Moreover, in everyday decision-making, such as choosing a route to work or selecting a meal, heuristics allow us to make choices quickly and efficiently, freeing up cognitive resources for other tasks. This ability to make rapid decisions contributes to our overall efficiency and adaptability in a fast-paced and information-rich world.

Thinking Errors and Homeostasis

Perhaps, one of the most fundamental explanations for cognitive errors is that they keep our organism running smoothly.

Bessel van der Kolk, MD, explains:

“We need to register and act on our physical sensations to keep our bodies safe. Realizing we’re cold compels us to put on a sweater; feeling hungry or spacey tells us our blood sugar is low and spurs us to get a snack; the pressure of a full bladder sends us to the bathroom.”

He explains that emotions are fundamental to this process. They divert attention away from non-critical engagements to focus on immediate threats to balance.

Van der Kolk posits:

“Emotion and attention are entirely related to the fundamental business of managing life within the organism. It is not possible to manage life and maintain homeostatic balance without data on the current state of the organism’s body” (van der Kolk, 2015).

The underlying goal of all living functions is survival and passing on genetics. So, we need behavioral reactions to environmental stimuli to motivate protective behaviors and successful fulfillment of basic needs. Often, however, the disruption to our system does not have an obvious behavioral reaction to calm the arousal. In these situations, We employ a variety of cognitive strategies or defense mechanisms to return to a comfortable biological state.

Our intricate systems react to cues with much more sensitivity than typically needed. Over-sensitivity, while bothersome, has a distinct advantage over lack of responsiveness (Nesse, 2019). It is better to be known you are going to be eaten than blissfully ignorant of the lion hiding in the bush. Somewhere in the grey area of a helpful warning system and bothersome false alarms cognitions help to smooth the disruptions without completely dismantling a necessary function of survival.

Common Types of Cognitive Processing Errors

• Confirmation Bias: This bias occurs when individuals seek out information that supports their existing beliefs while disregarding contradictory evidence. It can hinder objective evaluation and lead to flawed conclusions.
• Availability Heuristic: This error involves overestimating the importance of information readily available in memory. People may give disproportionate weight to recent or vivid events, impacting their judgment and decision-making.
• Anchoring Bias: When individuals rely too heavily on the first piece of information they receive, it can serve as an “anchor” for subsequent decisions. This can lead to insufficient adjustment from that initial information, influencing the overall decision-making process.
• Overconfidence Effect: People tend to be overly confident in their abilities, knowledge, or the accuracy of their judgments. This can lead to taking greater risks or overestimating the likelihood of success, despite evidence suggesting otherwise.

Behavior is Immediately Rewarded

Often healthy behaviors take time to marinate before blooming into greater well-being. The patient follower must courageously cling to wisdom while persisting with difficult new actions. We are easily distracted, misled by promises of ease and give in to the tempting images of instant success.

Our thinking error is we demand immediate returns on healthy behaviors.

See Wellness Basics for more on this topic

Emotions are Perfect Guides

Confused by the mass availability of data and deceptive authority, we fight uncertainty by relying on feelings (Murphy, 2021). Uncertainty arouses are system, motivating action. Robert M. Sapolsky, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, suggests that it’s “unpredictable pain, rather than pain itself, that activates the amygdala. Pain (and the amygdala’s response to it) is all about context” (Sapolsky, 2018). We avoid uncertainty by gathering facts to better predict the future. However, futures are not perfectly predictable. We must live with some uncertainty. Many people struggle with this.

Intolerance for uncertainty is defined by Buhr and Dugas as “the excessive tendency of an individual to consider it unacceptable that a negative event may occur, however small the probability of occurrence” (Buhr & Dugas, 2002). Hastie and Dawes explain that “a common way of dealing with our experience of the uncertainty in life is to ignore it completely, or to invent some ‘higher rationale’ to explain it” (Hastie & Dawes, 2010).

Relying on Emotions

One remedy often pursued in the avoidance of uncertainty is delegating decision making to the automatic following of emotions. Many either unconsciously ignore logic or outright hold the belief that a feeling is the best source of wisdom.

Accordingly, If they feels right, they pursue. Emotions are adaptive and powerful regulators of life. However, they have pitfalls. They don’t perfectly guide. Many actions produce pleasant sensations while creating long-term damage, while other actions cause discomfort in the present but bless in the long-term.

Misinterpreted meanings extracted from positive and negative feelings direct us down erroneous paths. Over-reliance on emotions, believing they cannot lead astray is a dangerous thinking error, leading to future sorrows.

See the Emotional Guidance System for more on this topic

Change is Easy

Changing behavioral trajectories requires effort (a Lot of it); we must face the stubbornness of ingrained habits and protective thinking. Adjusting course demands persistently forcing different actions than our inclinations. This doesn’t feel good, demanding exhaustive mental effort. 

When we challenge justifying thoughts, it doesn’t feel good; resisting chemical dependencies doesn’t feel good; listening to advice doesn’t feel good; sacrificing present pleasure for a better future doesn’t feel good—at least at first. These are thinking errors that interfere with growth.

Our thinking error is expecting change to be easy.

See Why is Change so Difficult? for more on this topic

Other Problematic Thinking Errors

There are many errors of thought that can lead us off track.

• All or Nothing Thinking
• Magical Thinking
• Counterfactual Thinking
• Dichotomous Thinking
• Focusing Illusion
• Affective Forecasting
• Moral Reasoning
• Moral Justification
• Imposter Syndrome
• Miswanting
• Selective Information Processing
• Catastrophic Thinking
• ​Over Simplifying
• Overly Positive

Addressing Cognitive Processing Errors

Understanding these cognitive biases is the first step towards mitigating their impact. By fostering self-awareness and critical thinking, individuals can actively question their assumptions and seek diverse perspectives. Techniques such as considering alternative explanations, soliciting feedback, and consciously challenging ingrained beliefs can help counteract the influence of cognitive processing errors.

Remember, cognitive biases are a natural part of human cognition, but being aware of them is the first step to minimizing their impact.

Wellness and Thinking Errors

A flourishing life requires multiple skills. We must manage negative debilitating thoughts, regulate powerful emotions, productively secure a living and build relationships, and find some meaning and purpose in it all. The volume of confusing advice for living healthy usually falls into one of these categories. The well-being field is flooded, information flowing from countless sources. As a wellness expert, I find sorting through effective and ineffective information difficult. Our success in navigating this path begins with avoiding thinking errors that impact all aspects of wellness.

We must be skeptical, slow to abandon proven behaviors for attractive shortcuts. Look a little deeper. Look for evidence of cognitive biases. Ask a few questions. Are there confirming studies? Who conducted the studies? Where did the idea come from? Is the idea all-encompassing, ignoring complexity?

​Our task is to catch some of the errors, correct when possible and improve our lives.

Therapy for Thinking Errors

Therapy, particularly cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and related approaches, is highly effective in helping individuals identify and adjust problematic thinking errors, also known as cognitive distortions. Here’s how:

Identifying Thinking Errors

• Therapists help clients become aware of their negative thought patterns and the specific cognitive distortions they employ. This involves techniques like thought records, where clients track their thoughts, feelings, and the situations that trigger them.  
• Common thinking errors like “all-or-nothing thinking,” “catastrophizing,” “mental filtering,” and “personalization” are explained, and clients learn to recognize these patterns in their own thinking.

Challenging and Reframing Thoughts

• Once thinking errors are identified, therapists guide clients in challenging the validity of these thoughts. This involves questioning the evidence, exploring alternative interpretations, and considering more balanced and realistic perspectives.  
• Clients learn to reframe negative thoughts into more positive and constructive ones. For example, instead of thinking “I always fail,” they might learn to think “I’ve had setbacks in the past, but I’m capable of learning and improving.”

Developing Cognitive Restructuring Skills

• Therapy provides clients with tools and techniques to actively modify their thought patterns. This includes learning to:
  1. Identify and challenge automatic negative thoughts.  
  2. Generate alternative, more realistic interpretations.
  3. Develop coping strategies for managing negative emotions.  
  4. Practice mindfulness, to observe thoughts without judgement.

Behavioral Experiments

• In some therapies, especially CBT, behavioral experiments are used to test the validity of negative beliefs. For example, someone who believes they are socially inept might be encouraged to engage in social interactions and observe the outcomes. This helps them gather evidence that contradicts their negative beliefs.  

Long-Term Change

• Therapy is not a quick fix. It requires consistent effort and practice to change ingrained thought patterns. Therapists provide ongoing support and guidance, helping clients develop the skills they need to maintain positive changes over time.  
• By practicing these skills, clients learn to become their own therapists, able to identify and challenge problematic thinking errors independently.

In essence, therapy provides a structured and supportive environment for individuals to gain insight into their thinking patterns, develop new cognitive skills, and ultimately, improve their emotional well-being.

Associated Concepts

• Information Processing System: This theory presents a cognitive framework that focuses on the mental processes involved in perceiving, organizing, understanding, and retrieving information. It suggests that the human mind works like a computer, processing, encoding, storing, and retrieving information.
• Executive Functions: This refer to a set of cognitive processes that are responsible for managing and controlling other cognitive abilities. These functions involve tasks such as problem-solving, decision-making, planning, organizing, and impulse control.
• Prospect Theory: This theory describes the way people make decisions under uncertainty. It suggests that individuals use various cognitive heuristics in decision making processes.
• Cognitive Heuristics: These are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that the human mind uses to simplify complex decision-making processes. These heuristics allow individuals to make quick judgments and decisions based on limited information and cognitive resources.
• Behavioral Control Theory: This theory provides a framework that explains how individuals regulate their behavior to achieve specific goals. It’s based on the idea that people have internal mechanisms that monitor and adjust their actions to maintain a desired state.
• Affective Realism: This concept suggests that our emotions deeply influence our perceptions, shaping our judgments and altering the content of our perception. This psychological phenomenon is closely linked to various cognitive processes and can lead to biases in our thinking and decision-making, impacting our interactions and understanding of reality.
• Attentional Control Theory (ACT): This theory explores the influence of anxiety on attention, highlighting the delicate balance between goal-directed and stimulus-driven attentional systems.

A Few Final Words by Psychology Fanatic

Cognitive processing errors are inherent to human cognition, but their influence can be tempered through diligence and self-reflection. Slowing down to investigate, asking a few questions, may save us from many unneeded hurts and setbacks because of erroneous thinking. We are human; we occasionally will be duped.  Upon first contact, we may like an idea because it sounds right, but with further examination and a few probing questions, we often discover the error, avoid wasting time and can pursue a more productive course on our way to happiness. By acknowledging these biases and actively working to counteract them, individuals can strive towards more reasoned and balanced decision-making.