How Does Cognitive Bias Work?

We know that cognitive bias is an error in our thought processes while we are processing decisions, interpreting new information, and setting up the base of our mental model. The whole world can act as an error in our thinking. Our brains, regardless of their power and capabilities still have limitations to them. When you have a million things going on in your mind, your brain begins to shut down or block certain parts from your conscious thought. It is attempting to simplify the process of quantifying the information that you are trying to focus on.

The problem is, your brain doesn’t know which information is pertinent and which is not when you are thinking of a million different things. 

That processing is supposed to help you make sense of your task, and of the world as it relates to it. Your brain also knows you are trying to make these decisions in a short amount of time. There are always deadlines in life, and we can’t just sit here and let them glide away in our brains forever. So, our brains take that concept and adjust the speed in which it deletes and pushes back information, just not always the correct information. 

Our moral compass is always at work, and always pointing in the direction we would like to believe we encompass. We want to make decisions that are objective of bias, logical in scope, and thorough with the information that has been given. When we are distracted, overwhelmed, anxious, or inattentive, those biases that we try so hard to push out, creep in a little at a time.

Almost always, you are not conscious of those biases when you reach a decision about something. So, they are left in your decision making models and end with unfruitful decisions and judgments not based in fact and objective truth. Ultimately, you are making bad decisions.