I Might Be Wrong

From The Big Think (bigthink.com)

In our brand strategy retreats we call Root Sessions, we kick things off with our “5 Elements of Trust”. One of these elements is “You might be wrong”. This element is designed to encourage contemplation, humility and healthy skepticism amongst all participants.

Here’s the science behind the idea …

Depending on the source, psychology and biology reveals that we have between 150–300 biases hard-wired into our thinking. Here’s a link to a handy infographic on the biases (this one shows 188). Driven by our brain’s neuroplasticity, these biases become more and more engrained unless challenged. Scientists believe that these biases are ancient features of the human app designed to help us survive, conform to a group, catalog information and compartmentalize experiences.

Some of the more common ones are:

• Confirmation Bias — Our ego’s belief system subsidizes itself through illusion and belief identity.
• Familiarity Bias — our psyche loves the perceived order of familiarity and will often create it even it doesn’t exist.
• Outcome Bias — we think we think we know how something will turn out and that becomes the measuring point of an experience.

Here’s another great read that digs more deeply into our biases.