12 cognitive distortions that get in the way of seeing reality and making good decisions

clinical analytical psychologist, master’s degree in psychology

The human mind is an amazing, complex mechanism. It is capable of processing various information, making decisions and perceiving the surrounding reality. However, its conclusions are not always objective. One of the reasons is cognitive distortions. What is it?

Under cognitive distortions in psychology understand errors in thinking, false beliefs, wrong conscious attitudes. For example, this includes a person’s confidence that somehow he knows better how his relatives should act. Such a belief can arise for a variety of reasons. From memory impairment to mental defenses (unconscious processes). From peculiarities of upbringing to “toxic positivity” – the tendency to lean only toward the positive outcome of a situation, ignoring negative plausible options.

List of cognitive distortions

Daniel Kahneman, one of the authors who introduced the concept of “cognitive distortions”, has compiled an impressive list of them. He identifies about 200 different variants: from changes in the background of an emotional reaction to an uncontrolled flow of thoughts in the mind (mental noise).

If you don’t dig too deep, the list is not so impressive, but vital. These are the distortions that occur most often. They can be conditionally divided into four types. The total list includes 12 cognitive distortions. You may notice many of them in yourself. The important thing is to try to look at them objectively.

Type #1: Behavior and decision making

1- Generalization of particular cases. An example of such a cognitive distortion: three buses in a row were late on schedule. The person makes a conclusion – all buses are late today. It is false. Why? The three buses are not all buses, and there was no observation of subsequent flights.

2. Self-confidence, inflated self-esteem. Here we are talking about the tendency to overestimate one’s capabilities, skills, qualities, abilities. At the same time – to underestimate the same in others. How does it manifest itself? For example, a person thinks like this: “I lost because the judges were bought. Ivanov won because he paid them”.

3- The Dunning-Kruger Effect. People with low skill levels make wrong conclusions, make bad decisions. The problem is that because of their incompetence, they can’t even realize these mistakes. Example: a psychologist who graduated from a short-term retraining program does not know the peculiarities of cognitive distortions and cannot notice them in a client.

Type #2. Socially conditioned

4. Projection of one’s views, feelings and desires onto others. Here we are talking about the false belief that people want the same things as you do and also share similar views. Example: a girl claims that all her friends like to go to the movies on weekends because she likes it herself. She is mistakenly projecting her interests onto those around her without checking this fact for realism.

5. The fundamental attribution error is the tendency of people toattribute the behavior of others to their own qualities. This does not take into account the circumstances and details of the situation. At the same time, people tend to overestimate the influence of external factors on their behavior, ignoring personal traits.

An example of such logic: “Ivanov is a rather uncoordinated person. His lateness today was predictable and expected”. However, the reasoning does not take into account the possibility that on this very day Ivanov’s car broke down and he was late for the first time in six months.

6. first impression effect – the influence of the opinion about a person, which was formed by the subject at the first meeting (in the first minutes), on the further evaluation of his/her activity and personality. For example, a girl liked the friendly greeting of a sales assistant. Now she sees him as a person who performs his work conscientiously and is ready to entrust him with the choice of her personal closet. The girl can not even imagine that the salesman imposes the most expensive items on her. “Such a nice man is unlikely to profit from others,” – so she mistakenly reasoned.

Type #3. Probability and stereotypes

7. Thecascade of available information is a self-reinforcing process in which the collective belief in something becomes more and more convincing. It happens through increasing repetition in public discourse. This distortion is perfectly illustrated by the phrase, “Repeat something long enough and it becomes true.”

The frequent advertising of pyramid schemes can serve as an example. The more often a person sees information about the successful experience of such investments, the higher his level of trust. The cognitive distortion is as follows: if it were a fraud, the state would have already paid attention to it, but if many mass media write about it so often and calmly, it means that everything is fine.

8. Functional entrenchment – using an object in one capacity prevents its subsequent use in a different role. For example, the impossibility of perceiving the back of a chair as a jacket hanger.

9. Hawthorne effect – the phenomenon that people are able to temporarily alter their behavior or performance. An example of this cognitive distortion would be an improvement in the level of discipline in a class when a committee arrives and students are placed under observation.

Type #4. Memory errors

10. Cryptomnesia is a form of misattribution where the result of imagination is mistaken for a memory. For example, a person thinks he or she composed a vivid joke, although in fact he or she read it in a Telegram feed.

11. egocentric distortion is the tendency to perceive the past in an affirming light, often with undeserved self-aggrandizement. A classic example of this cognitive distortion is the phrase “It used to be better.”

12. Infantile amnesia is the very poor ability of adults to reproduce memories of a period of life before the age of 2-4 years. It can be explained by immaturity of brain structures. For example, a parent asks their 15 year old son if he remembers his birthday when he was three years old. The son answers yes, but can only retell what they told him at an older age.

How can we combat cognitive distortions?

Some scientists believe that it is possible to control cognitive distortions. Special techniques can replace the automatic reactions of the mind with meaningful ones. Cognitive Bias Modification Therapy (CBMT) and Applied Cognitive Processing Therapy (ACPT) are also considered methods of distortion correction. These are effective in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addictions.

There is an entire field of cognitive psychotherapy. It is called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. It emphasizes dysfunctional thought patterns that are characteristic of a particular mental disorder.

For example, a person with narcissistic personality disorder has the following thinking pattern: I should have everything only the best, I have no right to be worse than others, my duty is to win, to take the first place. Once the cognitive distortion has been identified, therapy will be aimed at correcting these thought patterns. In this way, both feelings and behavioral responses are affected.

It should be understood that cognitive distortions are thinking patterns, stereotypes, and automatic reactions to certain situations. You can fight them if you have more information about them and start noticing their occurrence. It is important to analyze the world around you, developing critical thinking.