For decades, it has annoyed me that so many people feel the world is full of facts.
One of our primary sources for facts is our memories. Unfortunately our memories are almost always inaccurate.
Bias can impact our memory and the decisions we make. For example, airplane crashes get far more media attention than car crashes, this leads many people to worry more about flying than driving. Although the odds of dying in a car crash are actually one in five thousand, whereas the odds of dying in a plane crash are one in eleven million. Another intriguing one is the fear of sharks when in reality many more people die from horse accidents than shark attacks.
If you are asked if more words start with “k” or have “k” as the third letter, you’ll probably answer incorrectly because it’s easier to remember words that start with a particular letter. This is “availability bias”.
Hindsight bias can be very strong too. If you are told the correct answer later, it’s very likely that you will feel like “I knew that already”.
With stereotype bias, we tend to categorize other people according to some major grouping such as race. We tend to be worse at identifying people of races other than our own. Our minds simplify appearance of others by just storing them away by the general looks of their race. This isn’t affected by prejudice, just simply the categorization of someone by their race rather than the details of their appearance. This doesn’t occur in people who had a lot of exposure to other races before they were nine months old. It’s learned at a very, very early age!
Consistency bias impacts us when we remember things, because we tend to alter the memory to fit our current viewpoints rather than our viewpoints from when we originally experienced the event.
Peak and End bias adjusts our memory of events. Whether it’s a painful ordeal or a wonderful vacation, your entire memory of the event will be biased by how it ended and what the peak experience was. Tip: plan your vacations to end on a high point, this will leave you with a more enjoyable memory of the vacation.
Extrapolating on the inaccuracy of our memory: I consider it more important to focus on general feelings rather than specific details. What is your gut instinct about someone vs specific claims they make? Does that salesperson rub you wrong even though they promise you great things? Does good nutrition make sense to you? Or do you get lost in the details of one particular supplement? Do research studies sway you when in the back of your mind what they are saying doesn’t make sense to you, but they bombard you with a ton of data you don’t understand?
As I started to read I was reminded of the quote by Walter Benjamin, “History is written by the victors.”
The biases of the victors tells a very different tale of that of the conquered. As you pointed out, the feeling of conquest or defeat will make a large impact on how the story is told, and how it is remembered by the masses.
Great food for thought, for sure. Thank you!
How interesting! I knew only a handful of these. How many more are there! Sheesh! And yes, now that I think of it, you’re right about thinking of a vacation or a phase more fondly depending on its end. Very interesting, indeed! Thanks for sharing this.