Simple Guide to Attentional Bias
First and foremost, happy new year! Hope you have a great 2021.
In today’s email, we will talk about attentional bias.
But before we get into it, I just want to let you guys know that CredPlex.com just went live.
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With that out of the way, let’s get to today’s topic - Attentional Bias.
Attention bias affects our perception and our ability to make rational choices since it makes us pay attention to certain things while ignoring others.
This phenomenon is believed to be an evolutionary consequence.
Our ancestors were more likely to stay safe if they paid attention to things that posed a significant threat all the while ignoring things that are not a threat.
Needless to say, this bias greatly influences our decision making capability and hampers our ability to have an holistic perspective.
Bias for Addictive Vices & Memory Gaps
According to a study (source), addicts are known to be hyper-focussed on cues that reinforce their addiction while blocking out consequences of their addiction.
For example, if you had a smoking addiction, then chances are that when presented with a cue about cigarettes, your mind is likely to be filled with thoughts that reinforce your desire to take a quick smoke break. All this while, completely ignoring all those anti-smoking blog posts, videos and content you consumed earlier that showed all the adversities that smoking brings to your life.
Another aspect heavily influenced by the attentional bias is our memory.
When we are focussed heavily on a particular stimuli, we are more or less neglecting other aspects present in that environment which often results in incomplete, inaccurate or distorted memories.
Legal & Workplace Consequences
There have been multiple court cases where 2 witnesses to the same crime have come out with very different stories based on the stimuli that grabbed their attention.
An interesting video on how attentional bias can be manipulated: Video
Attentional bias can also affect your work and reduce your ability to stay productive.
For example, when it is lunch time, your focus shifts from work to food. Even though it is fairly obvious that you are going to have food at the scheduled time, there is a bit of anxiety that starts creeping in, which is likely to distract you from focussing on the task at hand.
Things take a more serious turn when it starts affecting major things like relationships where you are focussed on a particular aspect of your life while ignoring social obligations.
Most of us don’t realise the impact of the bias until the damage is already done.
Remedies & Questions
While the bias is deeply ingrained in us, the only way to reduce its long-term impact is to do routine assessments of our life.
General awareness about the bias can really help mitigate its influence on our lives. Initiatives like monthly health check-ups, open lines of communication with peers and family, healthy routines, regular journaling can help manage this bias.
You can start by asking yourself these 2 questions:
What am I super focussed on a regular basis?
If the things that I am super focussed on didn’t exist, what other aspects of my life would have my attention?
Hope this post helped you ascertain the role of attentional bias in your daily life and maybe now that you are cognisant of it, you can take some steps to remedy it.
Thanks for reading and keep it rational.
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