The human brain is capable of incredible things, but it’s also extremely flawed at times.
Science has shown that we tend to make all sorts of mental mistakes, called “cognitive biases”, that can affect both our thinking and actions. These biases, as Visual Capitalist"s Jeff Desjardins points out, can lead to us extrapolating information from the wrong sources, seeking to confirm existing beliefs, or failing to remember events the way they actually happened!
To be sure, this is all part of being human – but such cognitive biases can also have a profound effect on our endeavors, investments, and life in general. For this reason, today’s infographic from DesignHacks.co is particularly handy. It shows and groups each of the 188 known confirmation biases in existence.
WHAT IS A COGNITIVE BIAS?
Humans tend to think in certain ways that can lead to systematic deviations from making rational judgments.
These tendencies usually arise from:
Information processing shortcuts
The limited processing ability of the brain
Emotional and moral motivations
Distortions in storing and retrieving memories
Social influence
Cognitive biases have been studied for decades by academics in the fields of cognitive science, social psychology, and behavioral economics, but they are especially relevant in today’s information-packed world. They influence the way we think and act, and such irrational mental shortcuts can lead to all kinds of problems in entrepreneurship, investing, or management.
COGNITIVE BIAS EXAMPLES
Here are four examples of how these types of biases can affect people in the business world:
Familiarity Bias: An investor puts her money in “what she knows”, rather than seeking the obvious benefits from portfolio diversification. Just because a certain type of industry or security is familiar doesn’t make it the logical selection.
Self-Attribution Bias: An entrepreneur overly attributes his company’s success to himself, rather than other factors (team, luck, industry trends). When things go bad, he blames these external factors for derailing his progress.
Anchoring Bias: An employee in a salary negotiation is too dependent on the first number mentioned in the negotiations, rather than rationally examining a range of options.
Survivorship Bias: Entrepreneurship looks easy, because there are so many successful entrepreneurs out there. However, this is a cognitive bias: the successful entrepreneurs are the ones still around, while the millions who failed went and did other things.
I don’t live in an echo chamber, partly because there aren’t enough people out there who think like me, but also because I constantly and intentionally attempt to challenge my worldview by reading stuff from all over the political map. I ingest as much as I can from a wide variety of intelligent sources, picking and choosing what makes sense to me, and then synthesizing it the best I can.
Though I’m certainly grounded in certain key principles, my perspective on specific issues remains malleable as I take in additional information and perspectives. I try to accept and acknowledge my own ignorance and view life as a journey of constant mental, emotionally and spiritual growth. If I’m not growing my capacity in all of those realms until the day I die, I’m doing it wrong. Life should be seen as a battle against one’s own ignorance, as opposed to an obsession with the ignorance of others. You can’t legislate morality, nor can you legislate wisdom. The only way the world will improve on a long-term sustainable basis is if more of us get wise. That’s a personal journey and it’s our individual duty to accept it.
While I’m only in control of my own behavior, this doesn’t mean that the behavior of others is irrelevant to my life. Unfortunately, what I see happening to the population of America right now seems very troublesome and foreboding. What I’m witnessing across the board is hordes of people increasingly separating themselves into weird, unthinking cults. Something appears to have snapped in our collective consciousness, and many individuals I used to respect (on both sides of the political spectrum) are becoming disturbingly polarized and hysterical. People are rapidly morphing into radicalized mental patients.
What’s worse, this environment is providing a backdrop for the most destructive people of my lifetime - neoconservatives and neo liberals - to preen around on corporate media as “the voices of reason.” This is one of the most perverse and dangerous side-effects of the current political climate. As I noted earlier today on Twitter:
What the entrenched political class is doing now, is exactly what the Fed did after the crisis. Posing as saviors to a disaster they created
If in your disgust with Trump, you’re willing to run into the cold embrace of these destroyers of the middle class and the Middle East, you’ll get what you deserve. In contrast, if we really want to deal with our very real and very systemic problems, the last thing we need is a population-level mental breakdown that leads to a longing for the criminally destructive political status quo, yet that’s exactly what seems to be happening.
Ok fine, so everything seems to be rapidly collapsing, but what are we supposed to do? First of all, don’t lose your minds.
As noted earlier, Wilber thinks 10% is a key tipping point. In other words, if we can get 10% of the population to center around a yellow second-tier level of thought, which consists of a momentous leap in consciousness, the entire world will change for the better. I agree. I’m not here trying to sell you a seminar on how to expand your consciousness; rather, I think these article can help spark some sort of revelation in the minds of many of you who are already at yellow, or at least at the cusp of such a transformation. Since consciousness can and does regress under conditions of stress and fear, it’s extremely important to be conscious of your consciousness so that you don’t fall back into lower states.
Unfortunately, I see many people regressing at the moment, and I see the media as an intentional force in trying to get people to lower their consciousness. A perfect way to tell if someone is operating at a low level of consciousness is if they’re constantly placing tens of millions of their fellow citizens into an outside group they subsequently demonize. It’s perfectly fine and healthy to harshly criticize the system itself and the many powerful individuals doing awful things within it, but once you start dehumanizing large swaths of the population as a matter of your worldview, you are most certainly on a very counterproductive path that will lead to merely a blackhole of nothingness for society.
Beyond maintaining one’s sanity, it’s imperative that conscious humans create systems and communities that have as little connection as possible to the existing and rapidly disintegrating paradigm. This will create “anti-fragile” units of strength within the collapsing Potemkin village socio-economic structure that dominates our culture right now. Some of these projects need to be local, while others can be global. Community farming/food production is a great example of a local initiative, while Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general), represent global initiatives to replace the hopelessly corrupt and archaic entrenched financial system. While crazy, power-obsessed tribes focus on taking over the hopelessly corrupt centralized government in Washington D.C., we need to continue to build separate, decentralized paradigms — and there isn’t much time to waste.
Fortunately, there are plenty of very decent, very conscious people out there. I want this piece to provide encouragement to those of you already engaged in this invaluable work, as well as inspiration for those of you looking for an outlet for your creative and intellectual energies. It’s never been more important to keep our heads steady and not permit ourselves to be sucked into the mental sickness infecting so many of our fellow humans. It’s imperative that we vigilantly guard our wisdom and consciousness, because the best solutions will only come from a place of spiritual and mental health. If you descend into the gutter with everyone else, your output will also end up looking like trash. That’s the last thing we need.
The explosion of emotions triggered by the recent presidential election caught many off guard. Across the country, friendships have been lost, family members estranged, and hostility has boiled over in many communities.
In our consumer culture we"re sold lots of things. Two weeks ago it might have been jeans and a TV, but last week it was fear. And Loathing. People were sold fear and loathing, and now it is ruining friendships, making people miserable, and driving the country apart.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the “why” of this story. The “why” is a mix of competing interests including simple commerce (fear sells), political gain, and creating divisiveness within the population for other purposes.
So, what’s going on?
Sadly, in many cases, I think people have simply been manipulated in traumatic fashion and we"re now dealing with the emotional and social repercussions.
What do I mean by that?
In response to another comment on this site from a teacher whose students were expressing severe emotional distress over the Trump win, contributor Dave Fairtex offered these insights (emphasis mine):
(…) His students" reaction is NOT about losing an election. It"s because these people watch media, and the (Clinton-controlled) media spent the last four months working overtime to program everyone in the country that Trump is a soulless monster come to eat them and their families, roasting their babies on a spit while laughing, and so on.
This emotional programming has been extremely effective. That"s why people are rioting now. Not because they aren"t good losers, but because they"ve been successfully emotionally programmed by the Clinton Campaign"s media arm (CNN, CNBC, and millions of scary social media posts), who are very good at what they do.
Emotional programming… This is something that we need to discuss because it is very real. It is happening right now and will continue to bombard us. And humans are highly susceptible to it.
Not because they"re weak; but because they"re unaware of it. If you aren"t aware of the tricks and devices used to persuade, lead, and sometime mislead your emotions and actions, then you cannot protect yourself from these efforts.
The Peak Prosperity Value Proposition
Before we dive into the topic of persuasion, subliminal nudging, and emotional manipulation I want to review the value proposition here at PeakProsperity.com.
Why do so many people read our articles? Why do a number of them subscribe to premium content and Insider reports? Because they find value in them. We’ve heard it said, many times, that our readers value our work Because it makes them feel smarter.
Of course, we don"t think we"re actually making these folks any more intelligent than they already are. However, we do strive to engage their minds in ways that challenge and expand their perspective.
So how about this instead? What I am going to provide here today, as always, is essential context that will (1) help you see the world in a new and expanded way that will (2) lead you to make different decisions in the future. After all, "smarter" is no good if it doesn’t lead you to be more connected to and alive within the world.
The more context you have, the more intelligent you become.
Knowledge is a bunch of facts. Someone who can list every national capitol through all of history has a lot of knowledge. But possessing a lot of knowledge is not the same thing as being intelligent.
Intelligence comes from connecting ideas and having the context, or framework, into which one can plug one’s accumulated knowledge.
A favorite Leonardo Da Vinci quote of mine is:
“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else”
With this view ‘intelligent’ is not something you are; it is something you become.
Let me also say, right up front, that I"m not going to try to convince you of anything. I will lay out a series of dots that I hope might sway your thinking, because they swayed mine. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. But you should have a solid argument for why.
Your mental landscape is certainly different from mine. Quite possibly so entirely different that what persuades me has zero impact on you, or even may solidify an entirely opposite view you hold.
That’s entirely fine by me. We can be intelligent in entirely different ways, and that diversity of thinking is really important to the pursuit of truth.
This distinction is pretty much lost on a lot of people at present. And that’s creating a lot of resentment in our society right now.
The Persuasion Continuum
There’s nothing inherently bad with being persuasive. In fact, it’s a great talent to have. We cover this in depth in our weekend seminar series.
While it’s too much to go into here, the art of persuasion that we preach involves being calm, centered and collected. Have your facts at the ready, be free of any emotional charges (such as anger or depression), and approach your audience gently, always ready to back away if you see signs that they"re not emotionally ready to listen to you now. Plant seeds in these cases. Be patient.
Pressing or cajoling doesn"t change someone"s opinion. Nobody has ever been persuaded by being bullied. Or insulted. Or belittled. Or shamed. Or shouted down. They may retreat from the argument, but they"re not swayed.
People will listen to hear a new line of thinking when they"re ready, and not a moment sooner. Well, as long as you"re playing fair and coming through the front door, that is.
Because the human mind has back doors as well, a fact that such techniques as Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), hypnosis, mirroring, and subliminal advertising take advantage of.
Furthermore, when humans are traumatized, their front and back doors are ripped open. In this state, people are open to all kinds of manipulation and implanted suggestions. Trauma programming gives us the Stockholm Syndrome -- where a kidnapping or hostage victim develops feelings of trust or affection towards their captor(s) -- as well as buys years, decades and sometimes a lifetime of silence from sexual assault victims.
Here’s a straightforward diagram for the visually minded folks (like me) out there:
Before we get to harder material around the sort of propaganda and emotional manipulation that has accompanied this election cycle, let’s spend some time on the relatively safe and agreed-upon territory of manipulation in traditional sales and marketing campaigns.
Manipulative Marketing & Subliminal Advertising
If you haven’t noticed, performing a Google search for something like ‘best kiddie swim pools’ will usually cause you to later notice that ads for kids" swim wear begin showing up on your favorite news sites.
This is old news, and creepy as it is, it’s quite effective. If it didn’t work, it wouldn"t be used. It’s used because it works great, and it’s getting more sophisticated all the time as the algorithms become better and better at figuring out how to understand someone well enough to divine their shopping preferences.
But all of that is pretty straightforward and overt, at for those paying even mild attention. Most of us know by now that the ads that show up on the internet sites we visit are anything but random. They"re meant for us based on our recent on-line searches and behavior.
Subliminal advertising is far more covert than simple ad placement as it is designed to operate sub-liminally meaning "beneath your conscious awareness". This is different from operating on the un-conscious level because, generally speaking, you cannot access your unconscious mind. But you can elevate a subliminal message into your conscious frame.
Subliminal things are often right there in front of you, but they"re not really noticed unless your attention is drawn to them for other reasons.
There’s a whole subculture of people who like to discover and expose the subliminal messages that are used every day to try and influence people’s purchasing habits. Most often subliminal messages revolve around sex.
Why? Because evoking a connection to sex has proven to be extremely effective at motivating people to action, specifically towards buying your product. Again: it’s used because it works.
If you want to amuse yourself, Google "subliminal advertising" and scroll through the image results.
Here are a few examples to give you an idea of the trove of examples that your search will find:
And so on. Some of the examples I dared not reproduce for fear of offending folks, as they were so sexually graphic. But for those interested, there’s a big world of subliminal advertising to explore...
The point of subliminal advertising is to link a mass product to consumer’s unconscious desires. While used extensively by corporations to move their products, the initial logic that underlies subliminal advertising, and even advertising more generally, was based on the works of Sigmund Freud and developed into a workable framework for social control and programming by his nephew Edward Bernays.
Here’s a fascinating documentary on how all this came to be (~ 1 hour):
Which brings us to propaganda.
Propaganda
When I write “propaganda” many people will reflexively think of the crude cartoons of WW II that depicted various fascist leaders of enemy countries as evil caricatures.
Once one knows what to look for, the efforts are really not at all difficult to spot. And once elevated to the conscious mind, they lose nearly all of their effectiveness.
What’s important to realize is that the science of propaganda was born a long time ago, and it has not remained fossilized ever since. It"s been evolving along with our increasingly sophisticated understanding of the brain and its functions and wiring.
Here’s what the grandfather of propaganda, Freud"s nephew Edward Bernays, wrote in chapter 1 of his book Propaganda back in 1928:
The true ruling powers of any country are those who most successfully manipulate the “organized habits and opinions of the masses” as Bernays says. Once you understand the rules for rulers, you know that they can do nothing without keeping those who hold the keys to power on their side. And they in turn can do nothing without the consent and agreement of those below them. And propaganda plays a critical role in securing and maintaining that loyalty and consent.
While generally not talked about in polite company, the art and science of social control has been faithfully advanced and deployed to sell you a lot more than shoes and soda.
The science of social control, especially what the crowds are thinking and doing, while still imperfect, has come a very long way over the past 90 years.
Here’s an example picked up very recently by member mememonkey that I thought fascinating:
While playing a video feed of Ronald Reagan being shot by Hinkley, CNN was displaying text below that reads “TRUMP FACES BACKLASH…” Blunt. Crude. Effective.
Now, by this time it hopefully does not take a genius to see what sort of message is being sold here. What exactly the Reagan assassination attempt has to do with Trump ditching reporters is entirely unclear from the image and text placement. Heck, it’s not even clear once they try and explain it. But the inference is crystal clear: assassination might just be "fair game" as a form of backlash?
A traumatic event is being used to reinforce a message. That’s a covert-traumatic ploy that’s a proven winner. If it didn’t work, then it wouldn’t be used. But here it is, and you need to be aware that such scripts are running nearly all the time in the marketplace not just of products, but of ideas.
Now this isn’t some tin-foil hat wearing theory. It"s the very essence of advertising and propaganda. Once you notice it, you’ll see it everywhere and if you are like me, it will annoy you with its brazen obviousness. “How can this work?” you will wonder.
As greater advances have been made in the fields of social control, cognitive processing, and neurology the ‘tools of the trade’ have become ever more sophisticated.
You need to be aware of the idea that not only are these subtle influences bombarding us all the time, but they are increasingly effective. If you are not aware, then you run the risk of having your ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and emotions essentially provided for you by someone else.
In Part 2: How To Protect Yourself From Persuasion & Propaganda, we explain how once you become aware of the constant ‘programming’ efforts that are being aimed at you on a daily basis, you have the chance to become mindful of these efforts and prevent them from swaying your emotions and decisions (at least, not more than you allow them to).
