Learning Outcomes
There are two types of decisions—programmed and non-programmed. A programmed decision is one that is very routine and, within an organization, likely to be subject to rules and policies that help decision makers arrive at the same decision when the situation presents itself. A nonprogrammed decision is one that is more unusual and made less frequently. These are the types of decisions that are most likely going to be subjected to decision making heuristics, or biases. Show
As we become more embroiled in the rational decision making model—or, as we discussed, the more likely bounded rationality decision making model—some of our attempts to shortcut the collection of all data and review of all alternatives can lead us a bit astray. Common distortions in our review of data and alternatives are called biases. You only need to scroll through social media and look at people arguing politics, climate change, and other hot topics to see biases in action. They’re everywhere. Here are some of the more common ones you’re likely to see: Overconfidence BiasThe overconfidence bias is a pretty simple one to understand—people are overly optimistic about how right they are. Studies have shown that when people state they’re 65–70% sure they’re right, those people are only right 50% of the time. Similarly, when they state they’re 100% sure, they’re usually right about 70–85% of the time. Overconfidence of one’s “correctness” can lead to poor decision making. Interestingly, studies have also shown that those individuals with the weakest intelligence and interpersonal skills are the most likely to exhibit overconfidence in their decision making, so managers should watch for overconfidence as a bias when they’re trying to make decisions or solve problems outside their areas of expertise. Anchoring BiasThe anchoring bias is the tendency to fix on the initial information as the starting point for making a decision, and the failure to adjust for subsequent information as it’s collected. For example, a manager may be interviewing a candidate for a job, and that candidate asks for a $100,000 starting salary. As soon as that number is stated, the manager’s ability to ignore that number is compromised, and subsequent information suggesting the average salary for that type of job is $80,000 will not hold as much strength. Similarly, if a manager asks you for an expected starting salary, your answer will likely anchor the manager’s impending offer. Anchors are a common issue in negotiations and interviews. Confirmation BiasThe rational decision making process assumes that we gather information and data objectively, but confirmation bias represents the gathering of information that supports one’s initial conclusions. We seek out information that reaffirms our past choices and tend to put little weight on those things that challenge our views. For example, two people on social media may be arguing the existence of climate change. In the instance of confirmation bias, each of those people would look to find scientific papers and evidence that supports their theories, rather than making a full examination of the situation. Hindsight BiasHindsight bias is the tendency we have to believe that we’d have accurately predicted a particular event after the outcome of that event is known. On the Saturday before a Super Bowl, far fewer people are sure of the outcome of the event, but on the Monday following, many more are willing to claim they were positive the winning team was indeed going to emerge the winner.Because we construct a situation where we fool ourselves into thinking we knew more about an event before it happened, hindsight bias restricts our ability to learn from the past and makes us overconfident about future predictions. Representative BiasRepresentative bias is when a decision maker wrongly compares two situations because of a perceived similarity, or, conversely, when he or she evaluates an event without comparing it to similar situations. Either way, the problem is not put in the proper context. In the workplace, employees might assume a bias against white males when they see that several women and minorities have been hired recently. They may see the last five or six hires as representative of the company’s policy, without looking at the last five to ten years of hires. On the other side of the coin, two high school seniors might have very similar school records, and it might be assumed that because one of those students got into the college of her choice, the other is likely to follow. That’s not necessarily the case, but representative bias leads a decision maker to think because situations are similar, outcomes are likely to be similar as well. Availability BiasAvailability bias suggests that decision makers use the information that is most readily available to them when making a decision. We hear about terrorism all the time on the news, and in fictional media. It’s blown out of proportion, making it seem like a bigger threat than it is, so people invest their time and efforts to combat it. Cancer, however, kills 2,000 times more people. We don’t invest in that, it doesn’t get enough news coverage, and it’s not as “available” in our mind as information. Hence, the availability bias. Commitment ErrorsThis is an increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information. A business owner may put some money down on a storefront location to rent DVDs and Blu-rays, start purchasing stock for his or her shelves and hire a few people to help him or her watch the cash register. The owner may review some data and stats that indicate people don’t go out and rent videos too much anymore, but, because he or she is committed to the location, the stock, the people, the owner is going to continue down that path and open a movie rental location. Managers sometimes want to prove their initial decision was correct by letting a bad decision go on too long, hoping the direction will be corrected. These are often costly mistakes. Randomness ErrorsIf you are certain your lucky tie will help you earn a client’s business at a meeting later today, you’re committing a randomness error. A tie does not bring you luck, even if you once wore it on a day when you closed a big deal. Decisions can become impaired when we try to create meaning out of random events. Consider stock prices. Financial advisors feel they can predict the flow of stock prices based on past performance, but on any given day, those stock prices are completely random. In reality, these advisors were able to predict the direction of stock prices about 49 percent of the time, or about as well as if they’d just guessed. In the case of the lucky tie, that’s more a superstition. Decision makers who are controlled by their superstitions can find it difficult or impossible to change routines or objectively process new information. Managers who can objectively collect data and arrive at alternatives without being affected by these biases are already head-and-shoulders above other decision makers who aren’t aware of these pitfalls. Finding unique solutions to unique problems requires a little something more, though. Creativity in decision making can take you to the next step. We’ll talk about that next. Contribute!Did you have an idea for improving this content? We’d love your input. Improve this pageLearn More
Cognitive distortions or ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ are ways that our thoughts can become biased. As conscious beings we are always interpreting the world around us, trying to make sense of what is happening. Sometimes our brains take ‘short cuts’ and generate results that are not completely accurate. Different cognitive short cuts result in different kinds of bias or distortions in our thinking. Sometimes we might jump to the worst possible conclusion, at other times we might blame ourselves for things that are not our fault. Cognitive distortions happen automatically – we don’t mean to think inaccurately – but unless we learn to notice them they can have powerful yet invisible effects upon our moods and our lives. Cognitive distortions were first noted by Aaron Beck in his research with depressed patients in the 1960’s [1]. They formed a central part of his cognitive theory of depression [2] and, later, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). A good example of a cognitive distortion is what Beck originally called ‘selective abstraction’ but which is often now referred to as a ‘mental filter’. It describes our tendency to focus on one detail, often taken out of context, and ignore other more important parts of an experience. For example, Jenny delivered some teaching at her workplace and got a round of applause at the end as well as numerous colleagues telling her how well she did and how helpful they had found her presentation. When she looked at the feedback forms afterwards she noticed one form with critical comments and a poor rating. She couldn’t stop thinking about this one piece of negative feedback and criticized herself saying “I’m such a rubbish teacher”. As a result she felt awful. Jenny’s thinking process was distorted because she had managed to ignore all of the positive feedback she had received and focus solely on the negative. She did this automatically and without realizing she had done it. Cognitive distortions are common, entirely normal, and not our fault. None of us are 100% logical and rational like Mr Spock. But when unhelpful thinking styles are present in our lives to an excessive degree they are associated with poor mental health [3,4]. There is strong evidence that people with depression and anxiety think in characteristically biased and unhelpful ways [5]. Recognizing and then overcoming our unhelpful thinking styles is frequently an important part of CBT treatment for anxiety and depression. How Beck identified cognitive distortionsCognitive distortions in the context of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) were first described by Aaron Beck in his 1963 paper ‘Thinking and depression: 1. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions’ [1]. Beck was a psychiatrist who had also trained in psychoanalysis. In the 1960’s he was conducting research into the treatment of depression. Part of Beck’s research in a psychiatric clinic involved conducting interviews with depressed patients whom he was seeing for psychotherapy. The interviews were conducted when the patients were moderately to severely depressed. The patients were encouraged to free associate (talk freely) and Beck’s policy was to intervene only minimally, taking notes as his patients spoke. Some patients also kept notes of their feelings and thoughts between sessions which Beck used as additional data. When Beck examined what his patients had told him he noticed themes in the cognitive content of the depressed patients and noted that:
Beck noted that distortions were particularly likely to be present when the situations (cues) are ambiguous. Using a computational metaphor Beck described what he was observing in his patients as ‘faulty information processing’:
Beck’s cognitive distortionsBeck included five cognitive distortions in his original list published in 1963 [1], and added an additional two in Cognitive Therapy of Depression which was published in 1979 [2]. Beck’s cognitive distortions included: Arbitrary interpretation / arbitrary inferenceArbitrary inference is “the process of forming an interpretation of a situation, event, or experience when there is no factual evidence to support the conclusion or where the conclusion is contrary to the evidence” [1]. Example: As John walked down the street he thought to himself “Everyone can tell that I’m a loser”. This thought is distorted for a number of reasons: John has no way of knowing what ‘everyone’ thinks, and it is extremely unlikely that anybody is even thinking about him since most people are likely to be wrapped up in their own concerns just as he is. Selective abstractionSelective abstraction is “the process of focusing on a detail taken out of context, ignoring other more salient features of the situation, and conceptualizing the whole experience on the basis of this element” [1]. Example of selective abstraction: Jenny delivered some teaching at her workplace and got a round of applause at the end as well as numerous people saying how well she did and how helpful they had found her presentation. When she looked at the feedback forms she noticed one form with critical comments and a poor rating. She couldn’t stop thinking about this feedback and criticised herself saying “I’m such a rubbish teacher”. Jenny’s thinking is distorted in this case because she has automatically focused on the one negative piece of feedback to the exclusion of all the positive feedback – her judgement of her teaching was not a fair reflection of the evidence. OvergeneralizationOvergeneralization is the process of “drawing a general conclusion about their ability, performance, or worth on the basis of a single incident” [1]. Example of overgeneralization: Carl gets a C- on a piece of homework, thinks to himself “I’m going to fail everything”, and feels hopeless. Carl’s thinking is distorted in this case because the conclusion he is reaching is too broad given the evidence. It is equally plausible that his c-minus is a ‘blip’ and that he will do well on tests in the future, or that there were good reasons why he got a poor grade this time that could be remedied in the future. Magnification and minimizationMagnification and minimization are “errors in evaluation which are so gross as to constitute distortions” [1]. Example of magnification: Paul’s baby is sick on his only clean shirt before he has to go to work to give a presentation. He has an image of his boss noticing, giving him a disgusted look, and firing him on the spot. Paul’s thinking (an image in this case) is an example of magnification because he is imagining and paying attention to a worst-case scenario. Example of minimization: Emma’s friend was the third person to try to tell her that she thought Emma was drinking too much and putting herself in danger. Emma dismissed her concerns by saying “You’re like everyone else, you worry too much” and thought to herself “I don’t know what they’re all so worried about”. Inexact labeling Example of labeling: Someone bumps into Sally as she gets off the train. Sally calls the person a “complete f****** idiot” and feels furious. Her conclusion that the person who bumped her is a ‘complete idiot’ is a distortion because it is such an extreme interpretation of what happened. A more benign (and realistic) interpretation is that the other person was simply clumsy or made a mistake. Personalization Example of personalization: On Sam’s journey to work he steps in a puddle, realizes he has forgotten his watch, and has to rush after his train is late. He thinks “the world has got it in for me” and feels deflated. Naturally Sam has placed himself at the centre of the story (we all tend to be somewhat egocentric), but his thinking is biased because he has assigned agency to the world around him and he is implicitly making the prediction that the world will continue to ‘have it in for him’. Absolutistic, dichotomous thinking Example of absolutistic dichotomous thinking: Tanya either did things perfectly or not at all. If she saw the slightest speck of dust at home she saw it as ‘filthy’. She was similarly strict with descriptions of herself – she was either doing ok, or was failing in every way. Her thinking is biased because she fails to see life in the ‘shades of grey’ that it actually operates. Burns’ unhelpful thinking stylesDr David Burns was an early student of Aaron Beck who has done much to popularize CBT. In his self-help book Feeling Good [6] he compares unhelpful thinking styles to the kinds of illusions performed by magicians “When you are depressed, you possess the remarkable ability to believe, and to get the people around you to believe, things which have no basis in reality”. Importantly, he used language that made cognitive distortions more engaging and understandable. Burns’ unhelpful thinking styles include: All-or-nothing thinking Overgeneralization Mental filter Disqualifying the positive Jumping to conclusions (mind reading, the fortune teller error) Magnification & minimization Emotional reasoning “Should” statements Labeling and mislabeling Personalization and blame Other unhelpful thinking stylesAs well as the cognitive distortions described by Beck and Burns many other cognitive biases have been identified by researchers. Cognitive biases are ways in which human thinking is not 100% accurate or is systematically subject to errors. Rachman and Shafran [7] describe cognitive bias as “a particular style of thinking that is consistent, non-veridical, and skewed”. Some examples of other cognitive biases include:
The number of ways that human thinking can be biased is very large (Wikipedia keeps an exhaustive list of cognitive biases) and although any could conceivably be affecting clients seeking therapy only a minority have traditionally been considered to be relevant to CBT practitioners. Some of the most important cognitive distortions that are frequently relevant to clinicians are outlined here. Thought-action fusion Rachman and Shafran give the example of the TAF bias in a patient with OCD who dreaded going to bed because he feared that we would die in his sleep. He rated the probability of this happening highly (10-20% per night) and reported that his belief was high because he experienced the unwanted thought that he would die in his sleep. He believed that other people who did not share similar thoughts were at much lower risk of dying in their sleep. His TAF represents a bias because there is no actual link between dying in one’s sleep and thoughts of it occurring. His bias meant that he had managed to ignore all of the many occasions where he had thought of dying in his sleep and yet had not died. Disqualifying others Hindsight bias Therapist: Could we explore this idea that you are responsible for being attacked because you got into the attacker’s car voluntarily? Some clinicians have argued that hindsight bias has the emotionally positive effect of making unwanted events seem foreseeable. The thinking goes something like this: “If bad events are foreseeable and I just missed it that time, then as long as I am vigilant I will be able to spot bad events in the future”. Thinking in this way can be reassuring because it makes us feel that we are in control of whether or not bad things happen to us. However, it is biased because it fails to reflect the sad truths that some traumas are not foreseeable and that sometimes bad things happen to good people. Social comparison Self-blame (when things are not our fault)
Why do we think in unhelpful ways?So far we have explored common cognitive distortions in CBT, learned how unhelpful thinking styles are apparent in our automatic thoughts, and have learned about the evidence for their impact on people’s mood. But where do unhelpful thinking styles come from? To answer this question we have to learn more about the theory of CBT. According to the cognitive model there are different levels of cognition: Figure: Levels of cognition specified in the cognitive model are: Core beliefs; Intermediate beliefs (rules, attitudes, assumptions); Automatic thoughts. Core beliefs are a fundamental level of belief. Judith Beck characterizes them as “global, rigid, and overgeneralized” [10]. Automatic thoughts are specific to the situation in which they are generated. Assumptions, attitudes, and rules are an intermediate level of belief which develops as the individual tries to make sense of the world around them. The cognitive model suggests that the particular kinds of automatic thoughts to which we are prone are a result of the core and intermediate beliefs that we hold. Or to put it another way: if our automatic thoughts are biased, then these biases are driven by our beliefs and assumptions. You can think of automatic thoughts as the plants that grow: which plants grow will depend on the kind of soil that we give them. To give some clinical examples: David had grown up in a household where his parents were very critical and placed great emphasis on academic achievement. His brother did well academically but David always struggled to meet his parent’s high standards. He has developed the core belief “I’m useless” and the (protective) assumption “As long as I achieve I am ok”. When he fails a test he has the automatic thought “I’m a complete failure” characterized by the ‘dichotomous thinking’ error. Rochelle experienced a lot of abuse as a child. Her parents were neglectful, she was abused by a relative, and she was bullied throughout her school career. She held the beliefs “I am unlovable” and “People will only ever hurt me”. She was quick to assume that others were likely to harm her, felt anxious, and struggled to form meaningful relationships. In therapy an examination of her automatic thoughts revealed lots of catastrophizing. Discussing some of the assumptions that she held Rochelle said that she always assumed the worst because that was what life had typically given her. Rochelle’s example is interesting because her catastrophizing bias was potentially adaptive during her dangerous childhood, but may be less helpful for her as an adult. A fascinating insight from Beck’s Cognitive Therapy of Depression is that each cognitive error is driven by specific assumptions [2]. If it is our automatic thoughts that are biased, then the biases are driven by our beliefs and assumptions: “Patient’s cognitive errors are derived from some type of assumption”. Table 1 gives some examples of cognitive errors and the associated assumptions:
Table 1: Unhelpful thinking styles (cognitive distortions) and associated assumptions. “Why do we think in unhelpful ways?” part two: an evolutionary viewThe ability for humans to think in abstract ways is the product of evolution. We have brains that allow us to think about things other than the here-and-now because that ability has benefited the survival of our species. One implication of this insight is that thinking itself is likely to have been optimized for survival rather than accuracy. Paul Gilbert published a fascinating evolutionary take on cognitive distortions in 1998 [8]. In it he reviews developmental explanations for cognitive distortions including the psychoanalytic approach viewing distortions as “resulting from unconscious motivations and conflicts originating in childhood” and the cognitive approach whereby cognitive distortions are “schema-driven reasoning errors” originating in belief structures laid down in childhood. Gilbert proposes that an evolutionary explanation does not necessarily conflict with developmental explanations but can exist as a complementary view. A summary of his argument is that:
Gilbert goes on to argue that “Although cognitive therapists stress the importance of rational decision making, and the importance of testing the evidence, evolution has only enabled rationality to emerge in so far as it aids survival and inclusive fitness” [8]. He proposes that animals have evolved a ‘better safe than sorry’ threat detection system which has a tendency to assume the worst and that information processing has therefore evolved to minimize the cost of mistakes, but not mistakes themselves. In his view information processing is inherently biased in the service of helping us to stay alive. The implication of this line of thinking is that some of the common unhelpful thinking styles may confer an evolutionary advantage. Consider the following biases: Jumping to conclusions All or nothing thinking Emotional reasoning Disqualifying the positive This evolutionary approach to cognitive distortions has interesting clinical implications for cognitive behavioral therapists working with clients who think in unhelpful ways. Gilbert’s ideas have since developed into the distinct therapeutic approach of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). In CFT cognitive distortions are not necessarily combated directly. Instead, what CFT brings is a layer of scientifically-grounded understanding to thoughts. Therapists might articulate the idea “No wonder you think this way – you have a tricky brain which is designed for survival instead of happiness”. Instead of direct restructuring the approach helps clients to soften their attitude towards themselves and reduces personal responsibility by viewing them as a product of an evolved brain (which it is not your fault for having). Clinicians interested in helping clients to foster self-compassion are advised to read further regarding the Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) approach. Thinking in a balanced way: treatment of unhelpful thinking styles with CBTHelping clients to think in a more balanced fashion is a core component of traditional cognitive therapy. Clinicians may need to move clients through a number of stages in order to effectively help them to overcome unhelpful and habitual cognitive biases. Help your clients understand about automatic thoughts Train your clients to catch their automatic thoughts using thought records Understand and notice cognitive biases To help your clients learn to recognize unhelpful thinking styles in their daily life you can use the Dysfunctional Thought Record. This thought record has columns for recording standard information about situations, thoughts and emotions, but also contains prompts to help clients practice identifying the biases present in their thoughts. Cognitive restructuring
Making the restructured thinking habitual Once symptoms have (at least partially) remitted shift to targeting assumptions Consider using cognitive bias modification References[1] Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9(4), 324-333. [2] Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive Therapy of Depression. New York: Guilford press. [3] Krantz, S., & Hammen, C. L. (1979). Assessment of cognitive bias in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88(6), 611. [4] McDermut, J. F., Haaga, D. A., & Bilek, L. A. (1997). Cognitive bias and irrational beliefs in major depression and dysphoria. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 21(4), 459-476. [5] Mathews, A., Mackintosh, B., & Fulcher, E. P. (1997). Cognitive biases in anxiety and attention to threat. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1(9), 340-345. [6] Burns, D. D. (1980). Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. [7] Rachman, S., & Shafran, R. (1999). Cognitive distortions: Thought–action fusion. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy: An International Journal of Theory & Practice, 6(2), 80-85. [8] Gilbert, P. (1998). The evolved basis and adaptive functions of cognitive distortions. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 71(4), 447-463. [9] Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D. M., & Hutton, D. G. (1989). Self‐presentational motivations and personality differences in self‐esteem. Journal of Personality, 57(3), 547-579. [10] Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive therapy: Basics and beyond. New York: Guilford. [11] Kahneman, D., & Egan, P. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [12] Cosmides, L. (1989). The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task. Cognition, 31(3), 187-276. [13] Driscoll, R. (1989). Self-condemnation: A comprehensive framework for assessment and treatment. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 26(1), 104. [14] MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. (2012). Cognitive bias modification approaches to anxiety. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 189-217. APA reference for this articleWhalley, M. G. (2019). Unhelpful thinking styles: cognitive distortions in CBT. Psychology Tools. Retrieved on [date], from https://www.psychologytools.com/articles/unhelpful-thinking-styles-cognitive-distortions-in-cbt/ |