Psychology and Mental Models

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Nudge : A behavioral science to adopt good Habits

Nudge A behavioral science to adopt good Habits In behavioral science or psychology there is an interesting concept called The Nudge Theory. This idea was first published in a book called “Nudge : Improving decisions about health, wealth and Happiness”. Wherever we go, we are constantly being nudged. By the Government, by big corporations, marketing companies to name a few and we don't even know it. So what is this nudge theory and why are we being nudged? Well, it is used to change our behavior to adopt some good habits or influence our decisions. This concept is very powerful if we use it for good. To adopt good habits or to make smart decisions. Lets understand it with examples. In India, there is a food delivery app named Zomato . They used this concept to reduce plastic consumption by targeting human’s lazy behavior. So when user order a food from Zomato, they get plastic cutlery with food. Zomato calculated this cutlery consumption that is reaching ...

Innovation: The Good and the Bad

Is innovation good or bad for your product ? Well, the short answer is , Yes. But the long answer is, It depends upon which characteristic of the product we are targeting for the Innovation. If we are innovating 1. To increase the stability of the Product. 2. To automate the process. 3. To reduce the turnaround time. Then yes, Innovation is good. But if we are innovating to hide the flaws of the primary product then it is very dangerous in the long run for both product and organization culture. Lets understand this with real life examples. We all pay taxes to the government and in return we expect the government to build good infrastructure for us. Be it school, roads or hospitals. But as we all know incompetent governments fail to do so, in most of the countries, most of the time. Now some greedy genius takes advantage of the incompetence of the government and comes up with the idea of private schools, paid roads and private hospitals. Which most of the people can't affor...

Availablity Heuristic

The Availability Heuristic. The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that people use when making judgments or decisions. It involves relying on the ease with which information or examples come to mind to assess the likelihood or frequency of events. Essentially, people tend to judge the probability of an event based on how readily they can recall similar instances or examples from memory, often leading to biased or inaccurate judgments. Let's illustrate the availability heuristic with a historical event example: Example: Assessing the Likelihood of Air Travel Accidents Imagine you are trying to assess the safety of air travel, and you're considering whether it's a risky mode of transportation. You might be influenced by the availability heuristic in the following ways: Recent News : If you've recently heard news reports about an airplane crash or aviation accident, that information is readily available in your memory. As a result, you may overestimate the likelih...

Anchoring Bias

Anchoring Bias Anchoring bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency of people to rely too heavily on the first piece of information they receive (the "anchor") when making decisions or judgments. This initial information, whether it's accurate or not, can influence subsequent decisions and lead to an inadequate adjustment away from that anchor. An illustration of historical prejudice is the debates surrounding the Treaty of Versailles, which put an end to World War I in 1919. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany and its allies were forced to pay expensive reparations and lose land. An essential part of the pact were the reparations Germany was required to pay to the Allies as compensation for the harm caused during the war. The anchoring bias in this context may be seen in how the Allied forces, particularly Britain and France, made the initial requests for reparations. These first requests were quite high, reflecting the enormous destruction and...

Confirmation Bias

In this post we will explore confirmation bias based on historical event. So lets start. In order to support their preexisting views or hypotheses, people are prone to looking for, interpreting, and remembering information in that way, while disregarding or downplaying conflicting evidence. This cognitive bias is known as confirmation bias. This bias, especially in the face of contradictory facts, can result in a distorted vision of reality and strengthen held beliefs. Here's a historical instance to show confirmation bias in action: Galileo and the Geocentric Model is an illustration. The geocentric model, which centered the universe on the Earth, was the dominant scientific perspective on the cosmos during the 16th and 17th centuries. The time's cultural and religious ideas reinforced this approach. By presenting evidence supporting the heliocentric model, which held that the Sun was at the center of the solar system and that the planets, including Earth, rotated around it, I...

Unveiling the Mind Maze: Navigating the Landscape of Cognitive Biases

What are Cognitive Biases? Cognitive biases are regular thought processes or mental heuristics that cause people to see reality incorrectly or erroneously. The brain uses heuristics (rules of thumb) and snap judgments in an effort to streamline information processing and decision-making, which leads to the development of these biases. While these mental shortcuts are frequently advantageous, they can also result in mistakes, incorrect interpretations, and irrational decisions. Here are some different types of cognitive biases: Anchoring Bias: the practice of making conclusions based solely on the initial piece of information (the "anchor"), even when that information is irrelevant or incorrect. To understand Anchoring Bias with example please click here Availability Heuristic: People assess an event's likelihood based on their ability to quickly and easily recall similar circumstances. It is sometimes assumed that something is more plausible if it is easier to recall. A...