Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average

We make certain mistakes because of the way we are wired. That’s the thesis of Joseph T. Hallinan, who gives a readable summary of research on brains and behavior, along with entertaining anecdotes, to make his point. Studies show human beings have any number of systemic biases that make us prone to certain kinds of errors, in part because we aren’t aware of our biases. Here are a few of them:• We are powerfully influenced by our first impressions. Consequently, we are reluctant to change answers on tests, even though we would usually get higher scores if we did.• A related bias is a reluctance to change our minds, even about bad information, and even when we know it is wrong. When people do change their minds, however, they often reconstruct their past opinion to make it consistent with the present one.• We miss much of what we see because we skim, so we often miss significant things. When we recognize patterns, we tend not to pay close attention to the details. We pay more attention to the beginning of a word than to the end. The more expertise or familiarity we have with something, the more skimming we do. This tendency can have dire consequences when the skimmer is a radiologist looking at an x-ray or a baggage screener looking for a gun.• We are influenced by the first number we see. Grocery stores know this when they advertise a product 4 for $2 instead of 1 for 50 cents. The number 4 acts as an anchor, resulting in an average 32 percent increase in sales compared to single-unit pricing. A quantity limit also boosts sales -- the higher the limit, the higher the sales. Being listed first on the ballot results in up to 3 percent more votes. Studies show that making the first offer in a negotiation tends to result in a better outcome for the party who makes it.• People usually feel more responsible for their actions rather than inactions, so we would rather err by failing to act. Doing nothing is less regrettable. Ergo, students have greater regret about making a mistake by changing a right answer to a wrong one than they do about failing to change a wrong answer. By the same token, a consistent pattern in decision making is to take risks in situations where we expect a loss, but to get conservative when it comes to gains, where we want to hold on to a sure thing. A study of NFL teams facing fourth downs concluded that 40 percent of the time, teams would do better by taking the risk of going for it; coaches actually go for it only 13 percent of the time, preferring the safe thing and kicking.• We think we can multitask better than we actually can. Our brains slow down when it has several tasks, and we are more likely to forget. One example of the risk of multitasking is the traffic hazard caused by talking on the cell phone while driving. “Inattention blindness” is when multitasking drivers look directly at something but do not see it. Cars rigged with cameras show that nearly eight of ten crashes are due to driver distraction, though only one in four drivers admits to those distractions. BTW, older drivers 60 and up can take twice as long to recover from distractions as younger ones.• We like to believe we are impartial, when the reality is we have strong tendencies shaping our judgments. When people are asked about judgmental biases, they claim they are less biased than average. Most doctors, for example, believe they are not influenced by gifts from drug companies, though they don’t think the same about their colleagues. When recalling our own actions, we tend to put them in a more favorable light than a neutral observer would. This self-serving tendency is so ingrained, writes Hallinan, that we aren’t aware of it. College students recall getting higher grades in high school than they actually did, and showed a far better memory for good grades than bad. Almost none underestimated their grades.* Overconfidence is a leading cause of error, and most of us – men in particular -- tend to be overconfident. Men overestimate their IQ and attractiveness, while women underestimate theirs. Men also forget their mistakes more readily than women. The conceit that we are above average leads to many mistakes. Overconfidence is high when there is little corrective feedback. Weather forecasters have gotten more accurate over the decades since they started giving the probabilities of various weather events. Their predictions are highly accurate in part because they get quick feedback.Ironically, overconfidence rises along with the difficulty of the task. As we gain more information about a topic, we gain confidence, albeit more information does not necessarily make people better informed. One study found that students learned more from summaries than from reading whole chapters. Another study found that professional horse handicappers were no more accurate with forty pieces of information than with five, though they were 50 percent more confident in their predictions using forty. A PGA study found that golf pros sank only 54.8 percent of their six-foot putts, though the pros thought their success was 80 percent. Experts in various fields believe their predictions are right, though studies show they have less reason for confidence than they think.Another example of overconfidence is that when putting something together we generally fail to read the directions. People prefer to follow their intuition than reading a manual. That leads to mistakes, even injuries in the case of do-it-yourselfers using nail guns. A further problem is that if we learn to do something a certain way, we are resistant to change, ignoring simpler solutions the next time.How can we reduce mistakes? If we were aware of our biases, then we would have a better chance of avoiding the mistakes they lead to, which is why this book is useful. Hallinan suggests we can moderate overconfidence by asking “what could go wrong?” There is a power to negative thinking so that pitfalls can be discovered instead of ignored. He also advises we do less multitasking, be less resistant to new ways of doing something, and get more sleep, since sleep-deprived people take more risks. He also recommends we give less credence to vivid anecdotes like diet testimonials; averages are more useful than testimonials. Finally, be happy. “Happy people tend to be more creative and less prone to the errors induced by habit.” ###

As Hallinan proves to us in his book "Why We Make Mistakes: How We ook Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average," the fact the world is filled with human mistakes is not surprising or interesting, but what is surprising and interesting is that "We learn so little from experience because we often blame the wrong cause." This book lends itself as a convenient read for busy people in that the book's structure lends itself to easy bite-sized readings without losing the interesting ideas Hallinan successfully conveys.The book was a great read with informative facts that were easy expressed through real life examples and interactive activities. One such activity is presented above in the book description involving the US penny, and the exercise easy drives home the author's point that the brain tends to summarizes and abbreviate information. Aimed at an audience that is expected to have very little to no background in the biology of the brain, the book is structured in an easy to read format that avoids complex descriptions of biological processes. The facts about how the mind worked were interestingly presented and allowed the reader to grasp the fundamental ideas behind the workings of neuroscience and how it can affect one on an ordinary and daily basis while not bogging the reader down in concepts that were difficult to understand. The writer does a good job of making the book engaging and easy to follow despite the fact the book was divided into little segments. In addition to the small easy to digest sections, the book includes pullout quotes that accentuate the point of the section scattered in the reading that broke up the pages in a tasteful way without proving too distracting to the reader or interrupting the flow of the narrative.Ranging from topics dealing with how the brain collects and summarizes information to more psychological aspects of the mind like the egotistical nature of the human psyche, this book is suited for those not intensely familiar with the biological workings of the brain because the terminology and descriptions are not too in-depth but are still satisfyingly novel to a new learner. The book is stylistically divided into thirteen parts, each pertaining to specific generalizations or errors associated with the brain and cognition. Within these parts the author further dissects the mistakes resulting from the natural way the brain functions going into the biological reasoning behind these evolutionary missteps, case studies exemplifying these mistakes, and then either a way these mistakes have been circumvented by others or how we can be more aware of the mistakes we are inclined to make. Some of the topics the author explores in the book include mistakes pertaining to vision, memory, or problem solving.The author's approach to explaining the roots of mistakes makes for easy reading and digestion, but really seemed more focused on analyzing the problem and mechanism rather than presenting a solution to the reader. Though the book constantly states that the root of preventing the mistakes described would be an awareness of the real problem behind the mistake, the advice presented is not only easy to take in, it is easily forgotten. The book presents simple, quirky ideas and concepts that do not stick with the reader beyond a passing minute of interest. The focus of the author's camera is too shifting to quickly, moving on the next interesting tidbit too soon for a seed of change to really plant and change the way the reader perceives the world or even his or her mistakes. Ironically, while one can see how the author presents the mechanisms behind mistakes and how they would be significant to identify and suppress through awareness, the author says it best when he claims, "Forgetting that may be the biggest mistake of all."Potential readers may better benefit from the authors advice by apply a method he mentions in passing in his book. By personalizing and writing down the advice he gives in a specific way that pertains to you as a reader may allow this book to benefit you far better than simply reading it alone. However, as far as interesting, short reads go, this book is also great for the reader only looking for something interesting to pass the time and is not interested in self improvement.Overall, this book is extremely accessible to wide audience and has the capability to attract, entertain and teach. Those looking for a book that would help with introspective reflections on their mistakes would benefit from looking at this book in depth and as a reference. However, those looking for an entertaining read that is light would not be disappointed by this selection either. The flexibility this book offers is a real benefit to those looking for an introduction to heavier science reads while providing a read for those not looking for anything deeper. This book is perfect for small discussions and would be a prime piece for interesting dinner table talk. I enjoyed this book greatly and think it is worth the purchase because it is enjoyable and lends itself to being open for a deeper second reading.

Può sembrare un libro banale ma in realtà analizza scientificamente come e perché commettiamo errori banali e importanti durante la nostra vita e le nostre attività. Una ultima, grande, considerazione: non è dove viviamo che ci rende felici ma è (leggetelo nel libro).

This book is so interesting for a curious mind. It explains from informed & technical opinions about all of the ways we act in our lives everyday & never really question why - simple things . I found these reasons why we act this was so informative to explain why we do all of these things without thinking but that we are influenced by how we live our lives everyday & relate to everyone else in our daily living - at home - at work - at play - at rest. A very interesting way to educate ourselves to the reason why we act as we do but do it without thinking.

Excellent book to know about why people make errors

Wer sich gerne mal mit dem "menschlichen Wesen" auseinandersetzt, der wird mit diesem Buch seine Freude haben.Kurzweilig geschrieben, informiert der Autor über unsere "toten WInkel" und unseren Hang dazu uns selber zu überschätzen.Keine trockene, wissenschaftliche Studie, sondern humorvolle Unterhaltung, die einen wirklich schmunzeln lässt.

Excellent book and I've had mine for years. Just purchased one recently as a gift for a friend. It identifies the three common filters we each use that lead to common and repetitive miss-takes - deletions, distortions and generalizations. You can identify these unconscious filters in the context of work and avoid many of the hiring traps created by miss matching a candidate's filters with what is required for a specific task/job, and inadvertently setting people up to fail. Matching a candidate's unconscious filters with the job not only reduces errors, it increases productivity and lowers stress. For more, find an NLP who specializes in business applications.