Let me give you a couple of examples:
1. Confirmation
Bias:
Probably the most well known and commonly cited cognitive bias is the confirmation bias - Humans have a natural bias to confirm their existing beliefs and ignore contradicting data. The effects are often found in business, religion, politics, and even science.
We often see this behaviour when someone justifies their position with subjective arguments or with something like, “It’s always been done that way,” versus supporting their position with facts and data. There is some real irony that confirmation bias is particularly prevalent when hypnotherapists attempt to support the notion of the existence of an unconscious
mind.
Confirmation Bias causes us to look for, interpret, and recall information in a way that affirms our beliefs instead of paying attention to objective data that contradicts it. For example, if an investor has a good opinion of a company, he might hold on to it’s stock, and overlook the red flags about the company that would cause him to think twice. On the other hand,
if he already has prejudices of the stocks of any particular company, his mind will look for information that supports his original idea, and brush aside any positive reviews. So, investors can make a serious blunder falling victim to the confirmation bias.
It’s really hard to change, especially when we’ve believed something to be true for so long. So, the effect is even stronger for deeply
entrenched beliefs.
If a hypnotherapist has invested a lot of money in a training that taught them that an unconscious mind exists, then they spend time with other professionals using the same notion, it becomes entrenched and very difficult to accept anything else.
In the current political climate here in Europe and regarding terrorism and related issues, my Facebook newsfeed is filled with confirmation bias; many people with an inability to look outside of their existing belief systems.
Confirmation bias vastly limits our ability to grow and improve, both in our professional and personal lives. We have to consider more possibilities and be more open to alternatives, and examine evidence.
Go and re-read the first paragraph of this article, immediately beneath
the list of links I gave at the beginning, I am clearly demonstrating confirmation bias myself there.
2. The Halo Effect:
The halo effect is a natural tendency of people to make specific judgments based on an observer’s overall impression of a
person, company, product, or absolutely anything.
Psychologist Edward Thorndike first coined the phrase, “The Halo Effect.” He noticed that people make judgements about others based on their perceptions of only one part of that person, and their judgments aren’t really all that accurate. While Halo effect may act
as a villain for most of the people, it serves as a blessing for those who know how to impress people.
If you are searching for a job, the halo effect is something that you might choose to harness and use to your advantage. People naturally make judgements about others based solely on subjective qualities, such as, how a person is dressed, how attractive a person is, even how a person
smells. In other words, the first impression is often something that all you have got. In an interview, a first impression can be formed with a quick glance of two or three seconds. That impression carries through the entire meeting and can determine whether someone is likely to employ you or find reasons to reject you.
However, the halo effect isn’t something that we are very often consciously
aware of; it’s something that causes us to think in a biased fashion when we’re around someone we like, admire, or think is attractive.
In fact, some studies have shown that even being aware of the halo effect doesn’t rule out someone from falling victim to
it!
3. Negative Bias:
One of the more problematic cognitive biases is Negative Bias.
Many people have an intrinsic obsession with negativity. They are affected by negative memories or feelings more than positive ones. This bias can influence people greatly.
For example, the media pretty much always focuses on negative news rather than anything positive. Fear
creates interest, gets viewers and sells newspapers. Any kind of tragedy or devastation dominate the news headlines most of the time and draws the attention of people.
Would you suggest to a therapy client to trust their instincts if they are depressed and filter reality to only see the negative aspects of life?
Would you offer up a notion that their ‘unconscious mind’ knows what is best for them and that they should trust it? I wouldn’t.
For those who are drawn in a negative direction, they need to be shown
how to move away from such thinking patterns and bias, surely.
They need to be instructed and educated about ways to think critically and clearly and to shake off such rigid patterns of automatic thoughts that are happening unconsciously.
4. Bandwagon
Effect:
This bias states that people do or believe what others do or believe despite evidence to the contrary. People like to follow trends and go with the flow of consensus. It is believed that social pressure is one the main reasons of such a Bandwagon Effect.
For example, people like to use a consumer product which is used by many other consumers (especially one promoted by a celebrity or sports star they look up to), or wear clothes that fit in with what the majority of people are wearing. Often more products get sold following a launch simply on the back of others buying it.
The notion of people having an unconscious
mind has become very popular and is fuelled by these four cognitive biases in particular. The notion breeds in groups of people thinking the same thing and not permitting it to be challenged.
In fact, there are large sections of the field of hypnotherapy who will reject anyone with a seemingly dissenting
perspective, an evidence-based leaning or any kind of viewpoint that does not match their own. Many reading this very article will spend the whole time looking for ways to dispute it rather than ways to dispute (or at least question) their own beliefs. They will simply fall prey to cognitive bias.
People who are creative, capable of critical, objective and independent thinking can throw off
cognitive bias.
Unfortunately, there is no magic antidote that will inoculate us from such cognitive biases all of the time. We can diminish their power by understanding that such distortions exist, looking out for them in our own thinking and putting effort into countering their influence over us. In other words, just knowing and considering these universal biases will make us less likely
to fall victim to them.
Evidence shows that we do things unconsciously. We absolutely do (doing things unconsciously is very different to having an unconscious mind).
Trusting the things we do
unconsciously can lead us to make grave errors such as those illustrated here today. Beyond the fact that there is no evidence that a separate entity of an unconscious mind exists, many hypnotherapists in particular characterise the unconscious mind as being something filled with wisdom that knows what is best for us, and tell clients to trust it. Yet to trust our instincts, intuition, automatic thoughts, gut feelings or an ‘unconscious mind’ unquestionably, is leading the client to more
potential error and even potentially leading them to simply perpetuate more of the problematic thinking and feeling that is causing the therapeutic issue in the first place – teach them to think critically, and to intelligently reason instead.
Those who have trained as hypnotherapists with me at my college or experienced hypnotherapy, coaching or mentoring with me one-to-one
know that this is central to an evidence-based approach to hypnotherapy.
For those wishing to know more, do go and search for information of cognitive biases and here is a lovely infographic taken from UK Business Insider website to get you started:
