Think too much. Don't think enough.

In an article titled, “The 12 Cognitive Biases That Prevent You From Being Rational” by George Dvorsky, I examined several things that are prominent in our everyday life that we don’t think about nearly enough. In the introduction the author explains that these are things that help us make very quick rational decisions based on error in previous thought. We may be convinced of something, act on it, and only when it ends badly do we realize where our thought process was flawed. Throughout the several biases in this article, two really jumped out at me. The first one being, Post-Purchase Realization. In the description, this is described as how we will rationally purchases something because of heavy want in the moment, then suddenly feel guilt or potential remorse after buying something, usually expensive or worthless. We tend to convince ourselves over a lot of thought that we have actually made a good decision and eventually we truly believe that. I can’t count on all of my phalanges how many times this has happened to me, and not necessarily that they were worthless items, but just that I made myself broke by doing so. I personally know a lot of people like that also, who assume they can make the money situation work until they realize they've spent a lot more than they intended. I feel like this is a widely agreed on subject and that in public discourse it wouldn't create a debate, because I’m sure everyone has experienced this a few times. The other cognitive bias in this article that I found interesting was the “Ingroup Bias”. This explains how when we are close with one specific group of people we tend to put them on a pedestal above others. I think being part of a clique, or a group of friends, or even a fan of something will inevitably make you act like this. When you start to hang out with people a lot you all take little things from each other and begin to act and sound like one another and I think that helps support this. You all become so much alike that you feel you have to trust them and take their side on everything even if it might not be right. Going through high school easily made me realize that this is how a lot of groups of girls act. If you become best friends with someone and they dislike somebody else, then you just inherited an enemy as well. I have seen it a hundred times where somebody can go from an indifferent standpoint on someone, to pure hatred just because someone they’re friends with has that same outlook on them. The article suggests that this may be due to the oxytocin in our brain, which makes us love someone and want to be loved in return, thus resulting in agreeing to their interests and who they like and dislike. This affects public discourse in a lot of ways, it can create unnecessary tension in a lot of aspects of life just because you decide not to think for yourself, or give into your groups biased opinion of someone or something. From my personal experiences, this cognitive bias seems to be the most prevalent.