The internet is arguably the most prevalent thinking space that has been curated by humanity. It provides platforms where people express their thoughts and feelings. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the patterns and pitfalls of human thought that are apparent in human behavior should also prevail on the internet. That said, here are some of the most common mind traps and how they present themselves over the internet.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The human mind is an amazing tool that we utilize as a species to understand the world that we live in. Despite its amazing complexities and dexterities, the mind still exhibits flaws in thinking logic. These mind traps manifest themselves in the form of fallacies and biases as our minds seek to formulate mental shortcuts to help us arrive at decisions faster. In this article we shall be delving into some of these common flaws and how they manifest in our daily patterns of thinking through our use of the internet.
Confirmation Bias
Perhaps the most apparent flaw in thinking logic, confirmation bias occurs when we seek to reinforce our staunch beliefs in something by seeking evidence to support it. Whenever we come across evidence that seems to refute such a belief system, our minds will tend to filter it away.
Take the notion that ‘all men are dogs’, for example. A woman who is going through a period of heartbreak and who believes that her partner is to blame for her emotional turmoil is more likely to latch on to this belief. It will be easier for her to agree with the information she finds on the web that supplements this thought pattern instead of anything that goes against it.
Confirmation bias compels us to formulate a belief first and justify it with evidence instead of collecting evidence and drawing conclusions from it to develop a belief. ‘Echo Chambers’, which are communities whose members staunchly share a common belief are now prevalent over the internet and are examples of the real-life manifestation of this bias. In these communities, members will continually hold up and feed each other information that adds on to their beliefs, and they will aggressively shoot down anyone with an agenda that goes against their beliefs.
Many of these communities exist all over social media and they have led to an increase in the ‘polarization’ on social issues. It is hard to convince someone who believes in something to ditch their beliefs for a moment and listen to opposing thoughts, even if the evidence for the opposite is more overwhelming.
The Ostrich Effect
Closely linked to confirmation bias is the ostrich effect. The ostrich effect was coined by the economists Dan Galai and Orly Sade who used it to describe how people deny knowing the implications of a financial decision or situation, especially if it involves a lot of risk-taking. It is derived from the now-debunked legend that ostriches respond to danger in their environments by burying their heads in the sand.
Whenever we are presented with negative information regarding our situations, our minds are biased toward finding a way of ignoring it. In the months and weeks leading to the 2008 Financial Crisis, many investors were aware of the potential collapse of the housing investment funding, and the fact the market had reached a volatile tipping point. Nonetheless, the speculation in the market did not die down and an economic collapse was imminent.
Every individual has a set of beliefs that they agree with and a set of outcomes from their decisions that they perceive as favorable. If anything arises to suggest the opposite, it is perceived in a negative light and the immediate response is to shy away from it. When a drug addict is informed that his addiction may lead to potentially fatal circumstances, for example, it would be easier for him to ignore it and find motivations to justify his actions. Unfortunately, many of us don’t realize until it’s too late that not everything has to be positive for it to supplement our beliefs.
Survivorship Bias
Nothing is more fulfilling than a rags-to-riches story when someone defeats all the odds against them and emerges on top. However, an unfortunate reality of the matter is that many more stories end up with a not-so-happy ending.
Survivorship bias is informed by our predisposition to ‘focus on the winners’ and not take into account the many failed attempts and ventures that are undertaken before success is finally achieved. The data that we are presented with ends up being a representation of a population that has survived some filtering process; which only inclines us to overlook what failed and focus on what survived and came out on top.
Here’s a practical example for you. Try googling for the top ten actors who made it in Hollywood. The results are plentiful with many search results covering some of the biggest names in the industry. On the other hand, try searching for the opposite and what you uncover will be scanty at best. Nonetheless, it should make sense that there would be much more coverage of the failed actors as, at least statistically, they constitute a higher number.
The internet has continually reinforced this ‘cherry-picked’, overly optimistic notion of success. No one is interested in failures as they have nothing optimistic to give.
Optimism Bias
Speaking of positivism, optimism bias refers to our tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive events and underestimate the likelihood of negative ones. It is a false notion that things never go wrong and that the path toward getting what we want is smooth and free-flowing.
Human beings are an incredibly optimistic species. Being positive is what allows us to conquer life’s obstacles and persevere even when the situation seems bleak. However, disregarding potential pitfalls and impediments can cause us to overestimate our abilities and when the trials come eventually, we are more likely to stumble and fall.
Influencers and the rise of social media gurus have found ways to convince the younger generation in particular that the path to being successful is incredibly simple. It is all a façade, especially given that social media does not show the grind behind success as it only exemplifies the good and the pleasant. Many young people, due to these influential figures, now don’t realize that success is a result of hard work and many failed attempts.
The Social Proof Effect
Influencers, celebrities, and internet gurus are also crucial in explaining the prevalence of the social proof theory. Social proof is the psychological phenomenon in which people copy the actions of others in choosing how to behave in a given situation.
Given that the internet today is the primary source for identity and community, many will seek to find the validation of their actions from internet personalities. Experts, influencers, celebrities, and other internet users are the most prominent in these online spaces, and therefore, the average internet user will seek validation from them.
Marketing entities take advantage of this effect to target advertising for their user base. Since credibility is an important tool for making sales, giving access to your product to those in prominent internet spaces will guarantee that many users will flock to buy it. Next time you see your favorite celebrity or influencer endorsing a product, know that you are watching the social proof effect in action.
The Framing Effect
Perception influences thinking habits. The Framing Effect, therefore, expounds on how different people will draw different conclusions from the same event depending on how it is presented. All in all, the framing effect is most apparent when the issue at hand is especially divisive and polarizing, for example, in the political sphere.
In the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas (Palestine), media outlets from both sides of the political divide report the war proceedings vastly differently. Pro-Israeli media has called out Hamas as being a terrorist organization that is only concerned with reeking fear and havoc, comparing it to ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Pro-Palestinian outlets view the attacks by Hamas as a war of liberation and independence for the Palestinian nation which has lived under oppressive Israeli rule for decades.
The level of polarization on the internet on various social and political issues is vastly affected by how they are presented and packaged. Liberal media outlets will package their reporting in a way that is appealing to their left-leaning audience. The same goes for the more conservative media. Anyone who consumes content more from either side will eventually formulate their opinions based on these consumption habits.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect
Talk about saving the best for last. The Dunning-Kruger is perhaps the most apparent, most egregious cognitive bias and mind trap prevalent across internet circles today. It was developed by two psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger whose 1999 study found that people who are least competent in their ability will dramatically overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective criteria.
The effect manifests best when one is learning a new skill. The learning curve happens to be incredibly steep in the initial stages of learning, and one may mistakenly think that they have reached the epitome of learning. However, that confidence quickly slumps as they realize that the information they possess on the subject is little. As they are exposed to more and more information on the subject and their knowledge about it expands, their confidence is regained but even when they become experts on the subject, the realization that they cannot be know-it-alls helps maintain their confidence on the matter at a sustainable level.
Unfortunately, the internet is full of so-called ‘gurus’ who are still in the initial stage of learning and they maintain an inflated sense of ego and confidence in the matters that they talk about. Every niche has its share of these ‘self-proclaimed experts’ who will challenge well-established and researched substantiated knowledge in these fields. Unfortunately, many internet users are none-the-wiser and they will gobble up the information spewed out by these fake experts without question, especially given that most of these ‘experts’ are influential enough to build trust with the audience in the first place.
Conclusion
Our minds have evolved over many years and the cognitive biases and mind traps that we exhibit are a result of years of refined thinking processes. Advanced human interactions give rise to complex communal organizations over a comparatively short time of human existence, a good example of that being the internet. Our minds are not great at perceiving such exponential growth and adapting to it, and they have been slow to adapt to these complex interactions. It is thus no surprise that these pitfalls in our thought processes are so apparent in our day-to-day interactions.
These biases are not exclusive to one another. Many times, human thought patterns are influenced by a combination of several of these biases and many more that we have not discussed in this article.
Given that they manifest in the form of patterns of thought, these biases cannot be eliminated from human thinking per se. It would take thousands of years of evolution for our minds to catch up. Nonetheless, being aware of our exposure to succumbing to them should cause us to be more alert and open-minded in acknowledging whenever we find ourselves being influenced by these biases.
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