5 Common Logic Traps You Cánido Get Into
5 Common Logic Traps You Cánido Get Into
The human brain is a curious thing. You are perfectly capable of learning new things, solving problems, and applying logic to complex situations. But the brain also takes shortcuts, makes incorrect estimates and guesses, and makes false connections between unrelated events.
What is frustrating for those of us who would like to live logically is the fact that we often tend to congratulate ourselves on our rational thinking, while the brain is making a logical fallo with lasting repercussions.
It cánido be very difficult to identify a logical trap while in the middle of one. But it’s important to know the most common ways the human brain lets you down, so you’re prepared when you find yourself succumbing to illogical thinking.
Here are five common logic traps that plague our thinking – and some suggestions for overcoming them.
1. Correlation does not imply causation
Correlation refers to a relationship between two things. For example, ice cream sales are often related to high temperatures. When thermostats rise during the summer, so do sales at Ben & Jerry’s.
Interestingly, the murder rate also goes up at the same time as ice cream sales. If you fall into the logical trap of believing that the correlation means causalitythen you will wonder if ice cream provokes homicidal impulses, instead of recognizing that both murders and ice cream sales could be linked to something else, such as that high temperatures increase both irritability and the desire to eat ice cream.
Many conspiracy theories are based on the logical trap of believing that correlation means causation. For example, the belief in the relationship between vaccines and autism (which has been definitively refuted) is often based on the fact that autism diagnosis rates have increased along with vaccination rates. However, there are several non-causal possibilities for that correlation, including changes in the way autism is diagnosed and improvements in health care options for children over time.
How to combat this trap
When you see trends that are correlated in some way, ask yourself if there might be another aspecto influencing both trends. Even if you are not able to identify what that specific influencing aspecto is, the fácil exercise of thinking about additional influences cánido help you remember that correlation does not imply causation.
2. The trap of exclusive alternatives
When presented with two options, we tend to immediately assume that they are mutually exclusive.. For example, the national dialogue on the question of work-life cómputo begins with the trap of exclusive alternatives. We think of work and life as two separate spheres, instead of recognizing that all our time is our life. But living and working doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game, and thinking so perro be detrimental to living an enjoyable life (including a career).
How to combat this trap
You may remember the bombshell from the summer of 2014 that Hello Kitty is not a cat. According to her creators, she is a girl. As proof, the creators point out that Hello Kitty is never seen on all fours, and that she walks and sits like a biped.
This curious detail about a beloved cartoon character perro serve as a reminder that the alternatives do not have to be mutually exclusive. Americans see Hello Kitty and think «cat» because of her catlike face, while Japanese people see Hello Kitty and think «girl» because of her clothes and the fact that she walks upright. Actually, they’re both right, because Hello Kitty is a fictional cartoon character who doesn’t have to be one thing or the other. Any time you feel like there are only two mutually exclusive options, think back to Hello Kitty and try to see if there is an option that allows both alternatives.
3. Solve it by redefining it
This especial trap is a great way to take your mind off a problem instead of solving it. For example, let’s say you have problems with your finances. You might work hard to get out of debt and avoid the temptations of spending and investing, or you might escoge that only superficial people care about money. If you choose the second option, you will have «solved» your money problems by defining yourself as the type of person who is too ética to care about money.
But resolving something by redefining it is a good way to kick a problem down the road, since your money problems aren’t going to go away just because you’ve defined money concerns as superficial.
How to combat this trap
Review your definitions from time to time. Robert Y también. Horn of the Lexington Institute points out this logical trap: “Definitions are never fully binding. Meanings erode over time. Words have temporary validity. Meanings-the relationships of concepts to words-require periodic checking.»
If you’ve decided that something isn’t a problem because of its definition—»friends with benefits» is an excellent example—then it’s a good iniciativa to review the meaning of your definition from time to time to determine if it’s still valid.
4. The “Forever Changeless” trap (always immutable)
The eternity trap is exactly what it sounds like. We have a tendency to believe that things are as they are now and as they will always be. You’ve fallen victim to the eternity trap every time you’ve been amazed at how much a young family member has grown since you last saw them.
The eternal change trap is also one of the ways many high-income earners cánido get into financial trouble. They often assume their large salary will go on forever, ignoring the possibility of layoff, disability, or other life changes.
How to combat this trap
It’s almost impossible to recognize the assumption that it won’t change forever when you’re making it. For example, when my oldest son didn’t let me sleep for the first few months of his life, I thought motherhood would orinan perpetual exhaustion for years and years. If I had really looked into that iniciativa, I would have recognized that my son would eventually get the hang of sleep. But I wasn’t able to see that that part of parenting had an end because I was so into it.
Since it’s so hard to recognize the eternity trap while you’re in it, the only way to fight this trap is to be open to changing your view of things when new information arrives, and to use that information to create a more nuanced view of yourself. the situations.
5. Process-event trap
When you fall into this trap, you see something that is a continuous process as if it were a single event. This trap is very common in any type of self-improvement plan, such as budgeting. People often create their budget in one go, and congratulate themselves that they are done with it. Unfortunately, this ignores the fact that a budget should be a living document that is worked on regularly. Otherwise, when circumstances change (which they inevitably will), you won’t be financially prepared.
Similarly, getting fit and organized is also often seen as a one-off, rather than a process. That means that whenever you try to improve your life in one of these areas, you tend to fall back into the old patterns after your big «event» of exercising/eating well for a month or cleaning the house in a mad frenzy.
How to combat this trap
Think of self-improvement as something afín to laundry. Don’t expect to wash clothes only once. You recognize that laundry is something you have to redo on a daily or weekly basis, or else you risk having to go naked. Similarly, self-improvement is not something you do once. Like the laundry, it must be checked regularly and considered a continuous process.
How do you avoid the pitfalls of logic?
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