Written by Claire Jong
The brain is one of humankind’s greatest mysteries - a foreign land with only a few tiny parts explored by scientists and psychologists, leaving a vast expanse yet to be touched. This, along with recent technological advancements with media, cognitive biases play a big role in our lives more than ever.
During your daily scroll on social media, you may have come across the term “FOMO” before. Characterized by the feeling of apprehension and anxiety that one is missing out on information, events, or experiences, fear of missing out (FOMO) is one of many cognitive biases that have a detrimental effect on our everyday mental health. So what is a cognitive bias? A cognitive bias is a subconscious error in thinking that leads you to misinterpret information from the world around you, and affects the rationality and accuracy of decisions and judgments (Ruhl, 2021). Below are three examples of cognitive biases which may prevent you from having a healthy mindset, and possible ways to avoid these biases from overtaking your mind.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
As stated before, FOMO can make you feel as if you are missing out on and being excluded from the fun experiences in life. As you compare yourself to those around you, others’ lives may seem more interesting, exciting, and satisfying than yours. As a result, not only do you have this constant overwhelming presence of fear, as evident from the name, but you may also feel unhealthy stress and jealousy toward your family and peers.
Instead of acting on these negative feelings, convert them into positive feelings of gratitude. Reflect on yourself and focus on what you already have - not what you lack. Start off with just journaling! Physically writing down what you are thankful for and what you already own can go a long way.
But still, FOMO mostly stems from social media - an integral part of our daily lives. It is now a part of our nature to post about our aesthetic food and lively hangouts with friends - with even a slight part of ourselves wanting to evoke some jealousy from others. It is natural to look at a video of people dancing and having fun at a party and experience slight FOMO. Therefore, another way to avoid this bias is to focus on real connections you currently have, rather than superficial, fake ones on social media.
Pessimism Bias
Have you ever not tried out for a leadership position in school because you were afraid of not getting chosen? And fearing you would maybe embarrass yourself in the process? This can be the pessimism bias talking. The pessimism bias is the overestimation of the probabilities and harmful effects of negative future events (BrainyTab, 2022). You become so unconfident in your abilities and possible positive results that you ironically limit your success on certain tasks - or worse, you don’t even try at all.
To overcome this, avoid finding fault in everything. Although pointing out some potential aspects that may go wrong will certainly help with preparation, excessive negatives can inversely cloud your judgment. To make this process easier, make a pros and cons list for situations that unsettle you. For instance, using the example above, trying out for a leadership position can embarrass you if you fail - but this is the worst that can happen. There are so many more pros to leadership positions: obtaining more decision-making power, creating a group and having fun collaborating with them, refining your advocacy skills for future jobs, and even if you don’t get picked, gaining the experience of applying anyway. Having at least one pro for every con will be extremely helpful, and in the end, you may even realize that there are more pros to the situation.
Barnum Effect
There has been a recent uprising of various personality tests, from the classic 16 personalities MBTI test to a “Which chemical periodic element describes you?” With a range of different letters, symbols, and items being used to portray a person’s personality these days, the Barnum effect has taken a large toll on many individuals. The Barnum effect is when an individual believes that personality descriptions apply specifically to them, even when vague and useless (BrainyTab, 2022). Although simple horoscopes and personality tests for fun have no harm, excessive attachment to your personality type label can have negative impacts both on you and those around you.
Imagine your astrological sign is Scorpio. The media around you claims you are “rude” and “aggressive” and assumes the worst in you just because of one mere label. Regardless of whether it is correct or not, constant assumptions and biases such as this from other people will affect your mental health negatively. On the other hand, some individuals may exploit the negative traits surrounding their label by excusing their inadequate behavior toward other people with them, which again is not right. Thus, when it comes to tests such as this, make sure to take it with a grain of salt and not be too gullible. After all, there is very limited scientific evidence on the correlation between your birth date and your entire personality.
When it comes to cognitive biases such as these, just understanding and acknowledging them can help us hinder their negative effects. The existence of these biases in our daily lives can affect our mental health and decision-making in a myriad of ways; thus whilst it will be hard to eliminate them entirely, lessening their effects and adapting to more positive emotions in the same situation is completely possible.
“12 Cognitive Biases That Influence Our Happiness.” BrainyTab, 13 Oct. 2021, brainytab.com/lp/12-cognitive-biases-that-influence-our-happiness/.
Simplypsychology.org, 2021, www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-bias.html.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Fear of Missing Out.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Nov. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out.
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