Category Archives: Cognitive Bias

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The Arrival Fallacy: Why Reaching a Goal Can Leave You Bummed

Here’s how to energize your goals and reduce disappointments

Has this every happened to you? You had a dream or goal you were pursuing… and it meant a LOT to you.

Arrival fallacy letdown

You were striving and stretching to reach this important goal because you knew achieving it would be so awesome… maybe even a game changer.

  • Getting that degree
  • Losing 30 pounds
  • Getting that promotion or your business to the next level

Yet, when you reached your goal, you found yourself surprisingly underwhelmed by how you felt. Sure, it felt great… but the thrill of victory evaporated as quickly as the morning dew.

I recently learned the science behind why this happens. This common experience has been called the Arrival Fallacy, where the anticipated payoff and the experience of the actual payoff are very different.

Why does this happen? More importantly, what can you do to avoid this empty feeling?

(more…)

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Affective Forecasting: Wrongly Imagining the Future

Research reveals things are rarely as bad (or good) as we imagine

Affective forecasting of our feelings in the future

Try this experiment. Imagine something you fear, even dread happening to you. Something really bad. Go ahead… I’ll wait.

Now, imagine those worst fears actually happen this coming week. What would your life be like 6 months from now? A year later?

Now, it’s time for our experiment to go to your happy place. Imagine one of your “dreams come true” happening this coming week. What would your life be like 6 months from now? A year later?

Now, take both of those imagined futures, good and bad, and throw them out the window. They are dead wrong.

Here’s the problem: research has revealed that you and I have a mental distortion in our perception of the future.

It confirms we humans have a huge problem accurately predicting how certain events, good or bad, will impact us… especially how we will feel in the future because of them.

It gets worse. Your inability to accurately forecast your future quality of life based on the impact current events have on you is undermining the quality of your decisions and your life TODAY. Read on to learn what you can do about it.

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5 Dumb Decisions (Hilarious!): How To Avoid Bad Decisions

These Key Areas are Leading You to Make Bad Decisions

Dumb decisions madeHave you seen a dumb decision being made by someone?

Isn’t your first thought: What were you thinking?

But, I also have a second thought: How can I avoid a bad decision? …so others don’t think the first thought about me. 🙂

Here are 5 really funny, but dumb decisions that prompt the first question.

… then I want to show you 2 ways to avoid bad decisions in the future. (more…)

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How to Make Good Decisions Despite Hidden Forces

Research reveals why some decisions turn out badly and how to prevent it

Making good decisionsHave you ever thought you were making good decisions that promised to make life better… and instead things got worse?

Things go off the road… and you are now a passenger in the unfolding of events?

Then a friend of yours, trying to be encouraging, says “it will get better! The disaster is actually a blessing! It’ll eventually turn out good…”

After shooting them and disposing of their body, you want to scream, “Why did this happen? It seemed like I made a good decision at the time!”

What you may not know is there was something influencing your decision that you couldn’t see.   (more…)

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The Focusing Illusion: How It Distorts Your Daily Life

Viewed as “Most Important” Concept to Recognize in Daily Life

Deceptive Illusion Do you like being deceived? You know, being led to believe one thing… but reality is quite different?

Pardon my French, but h*!ll no.

As bad as that is, it gets worse. Not only are you being fooled, what if I told you there is something in our human wiring that causes us to be fooled again and again by this same illusion?

Worse still, this illusion often leads to unnecessary stress, anxiety, frustration, fear and many other negative emotions.

If you can recognize this deception and counteract it, your life will have … lower stress and anxiety, plus greater peace and hopefulness. (more…)

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Is the Priming Effect Silently Turning You Into a Jerk?

How This Hidden Influence Can Corrupt Your Choices

The priming effect is hard to believeHave you ever heard or seen something that seems so crazy that it can’t possibly be true… and yet it is?

Here’s a hidden decision influencer that sounds crazy… but its effects have been verified.

It is called the Priming Effect.

Here’s what it can do: trick our brains at the subconscious level… that then affects our choices and actions.

It can even (without your knowledge) turn you into a rude jerk that feels justified in being that way. (more…)

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50 Cognitive Biases Wrecking Your Decisions [Infographic]

The Ultimate List of Influences Distorting How You See Reality

We All Make Choices,
But In The End Our Choices Make Us.
-Ken Levine

One of the most important factors to achieving success in life is making good decisions.

Good decisions = a better life
Poor decisions = a regret filled life

Kind of hard to argue with that.

But, here’s the problem: There are hidden factors distorting every decision you make—even the ones carefully made. (more…)

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