Decision-Making Under Pressure: Heuristics and Cognitive Biases

Heuristics: Our Brain's Mental Shortcuts

When we have to make decisions, especially under pressure, our brain uses a series of mental shortcuts known as heuristics.

These heuristics function as practical rules that guide our choices quickly, without the need for in-depth, detailed analysis.

Although these mental shortcuts can save us a great deal of time and effort, it is very important to know that they are not always perfect or precise.

They are mechanisms that we have developed to navigate the complexity of the world, but in high-pressure environments, they can lead us to make significant mistakes.

The first step to improving our decision-making is, therefore, to be aware that our mind uses these shortcuts completely automatically.

Cognitive Biases: When Shortcuts Lead Us Astray

Sometimes, these Shortcuts can end up generating errors in judgment or what is known in psychology as different cognitive biases.

A cognitive bias occurs when our particular way of thinking takes us away from the possibility of being able to make decisions that are logical, correct or well-founded.

Knowing about the existence of these biases allows us to detect when our thinking may be leading us astray, helping us to be more reflective and aware.

By identifying a bias in our way of reasoning, we can pause and evaluate the situation with greater objectivity, which improves the quality of the decision.

Confirmation Bias and Availability Bias

One of the most common examples is the confirmation bias, which is when we only focus on information that confirms what we already believe.

With this bias, we tend to systematically ignore all information that contradicts our previous beliefs, even if it is much more relevant or truthful.

This bias is very dangerous, as it can cause us to cling to decisions that are wrong, simply because they reinforce our initial view of the world.

Another important bias is the availability heuristic, with which we base our decisions on the information that we can recall most easily and quickly.

The problem is that the information that we recall easily, such as recent news or personal experiences,