 I'm right on everything that I think and everything that I believe and everything that I know is correct and I already also already know everything. Today we're going to be talking about how your brain is playing tricks on you and we're going to be talking about things called cognitive biases and so as we dive into this I don't mean to offend anybody but some of your foundations of what you build your life upon I promise you might get rocked. I'm going to challenge your beliefs I'm going to challenge the foundation of what you built your life upon and show you how we use cognitive biases to I guess you could say take over our own brains and you know how the brain is actually playing tricks on us before we even realize it. So let's dive into it. I'm going to go over a couple different bias with you guys. So the first one is something called confirmation bias. One of the things that's really funny about being a human is we have this incredibly complex piece of machinery between our ears that is working without us ever trying to use it without us ever thinking about it without ever trying to take control of it it's working at all points in time and it's doing what it's doing and if you don't know how it works it could mess you up a little bit and that's why you have to understand the way that we work. We think that our opinions are a result of years of rational and objective analysis. Like if I say tell me your beliefs tell me your opinions and tell me why those are your beliefs in your opinions. You think the reason why is because they are a result of years of rational thinking and objective analysis as to how the world works and how you operated it right nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that your opinions or the result of years of paying attention to information that confirmed how you believe while ignoring the information that changed your would have changed your perceptions. So this is just all psychology these are all facts it's called confirmation bias. You're literally seeing the world seeing everything you're only seeing what makes you feel like you are right and you're missing what can prove you wrong. Another problem with this is that you hang out with people who only think exactly the same as you because it's really hard to hang out with somebody who has a completely different opinion on the world. Like if you think of your top five friends they think exactly the same way that you do. They have the same beliefs they're probably around the same weight they probably eat the same as you they work out around the same amount of time that you work out they probably have the same political affiliations as you. We hang out with people who only think exactly the way that we think which then confirms even more of our bias of yes the way that we work in this world is right. So the friends that we hang out with that's the first thing the people we surround ourselves with. Here's another thing that's really hard about it. The news that you watch if you watch the news you're only what promise you that if you're of a political affiliation or certain beliefs you're only watching the news that is going to talk to you the way that you believe and to watch news on the other side really rocks the foundation for a lot of people. And the third thing is online. You're probably only following people who think the same as you which then confirms that the way that you think is right because you can see how many people think this way. This isn't necessarily a negative thing it's not a positive thing either it just is the way that it is but when you understand this you start to think to yourself are my beliefs actually my beliefs or is it a little bit of nature and nurture is that the way that I was raised you know my parents told me this this this this and then I just started hanging out with people who literally have the same beliefs as my parents in some sort of way or you could have maybe not enjoyed your parents in the way that they were so you started hanging out with people that were the exact opposite of them that confirm the way that you believe. Very rarely do I hear people going yeah I love to hang out with people that don't think the same as me. I love to hang out people of a different political party of different opinions of different thoughts and feelings and all of that stuff and there was actually to give you an idea of of how people read in 2009 Ohio State did a study that found that people people read excuse me spent 36 percent more time reading essays that aligned with their opinions. People want to read what is going to tell them that they they are correct. Now why is this really bad because there's another side of the street and you never really see the other side of the street. Now this was bad before social media the reason why social media ends up being worse then that makes this worse is because there's algorithms you know if you look at Instagram and you look at Facebook and you look at YouTube and Twitter and LinkedIn all of those things are they're just computers there's not people running those there's people that build these things called algorithms and algorithm is a computer that just you know a line of code that says if this person clicks like on this person's post show them more of their posts and so what happens is we create with with algorithms with the people that we hang out the news that we watch the algorithms that exist we create an echo chamber of only hearing our beliefs because here's the way that Facebook works let me just give you a real quick example right I understand the algorithms at a very deep level only because I think of everything on a computer all of these social medias and algorithms that's the way that I was able to build a following of over three million people between Instagram and Facebook is I was always thinking algorithmically and I was always thinking psychologically if I can understand the way that people think and I can understand the way that computers think I can then put out information that people want to see and then also it can start to go viral Facebook only makes money when you stay on Facebook because then you see the ads the only way that they're making money is through the ads that's it there is no other way that I'm aware of I mean there might be other things that are outside of it but Facebook as a company makes their money by selling advertisements and putting those advertisements in front of you they make money when you stay on Facebook so they will give you what you want so if I'm of a specific political party and I start to like certain things which I'm not I'm not a part of any political party but if I was and I start to like a certain person's stuff Facebook is then going to show me more people who I might not even follow who have the same political affiliation as me why because I want to read things that confirm that I'm right so you're seeing even more of what makes you think that you're right all of those things firm up the belief that anything different than what you believe is absolutely incorrect and you can feel it physically can't you when someone challenges your beliefs you can feel it physically inside of your body as if you're getting attacked that's why you see so many adults acting like children in the comment section of YouTube and Facebook and Instagram is because they are literally feeling physically attacked by other people because they don't they don't like seeing things outside of what they think is right to them so you only like to be told what you already know how ridiculous is that though to think that we already know everything and everything that we know is right but like how how ridiculous is it for me to be like I already know everything and everything that I believe is actually correct that's ridiculous isn't it and consciously I think everybody who's listening right now knows how insane that sounds for me to go I'm right on everything that I think and everything that I believe and everything that I know is correct and I already also already know everything and we can consciously think that like wow that sounds ridiculous that sounds I would never think that way I'm not like that no way but if I were to bring up a big issue that you believe in whatever that big issue is and tell you that you're wrong then we can really see how you react then there's usually a trigger and that trigger shows you where you're not free any trigger that anything that triggers you shows you where you're stuck in life if someone comes up to me and brings up some big issue and I get pissed it's showing me where I'm still stuck in life that's in the moment you know how you spend your time with people who you spend your time with what you spend your time learning we will only search for things that teach us not not always and I'm gonna say always but most of the time unless you're aware of it we will search for things that are going to show us that what we believe in is correct what about when something you believe ends up being bad or you voted for somebody and they did something bad now we roll into what's called another cognitive bias and it's called choice supportive bias first off we have confirmation bias which means that I'm only going to read the news that supports my beliefs or I'm only going to hang out with these people that support my beliefs and it's not just political beliefs but it's all types of beliefs could be religious beliefs it could just be spiritual beliefs it could be whatever it is there's so many different beliefs that we have I want to be around people who support my beliefs so now we roll into another cognitive bias which is called choice supportive bias when you make a decision whatever that decision is we will only see the positives this is so crazy when you actually start to think about it we will only see the positives in that decision most of the time and not see the negative let me give you a real good example right I have an iphone I had an iphone for I had a Samsung for the longest time and I switched about five years ago four years ago to an iphone and uh and then you notice that people on the Samsung side hate iPhones and they'll tell you why iPhones are the worst and people on the iphone side will hate Samsung they'll tell you why those are wrong so like let's say I have an iphone right we'll make it something just silly and simple it does happen right I have an iphone and overnight it decides and wants to update and then there's a bunch of bugs and it starts to fail and my friend Alan who has a samsung I do a friend named Alan he has a samsung we we always talk about this and we always make fun of him because we're like hey I'm going to air drop you some photos Alan oh I can't right and so we always make these jokes with him but he's hardcore he will not switch because he's just so hardcore in it and uh and so let's say my phone updates and something fails and my friend Alan comes over and he's like well yeah of course it did because that would never happen with a samsung right what's gonna happen with me I need to then back up my choice to have bought an iphone right this is this is the the perfect example of choice supportive bias I made a choice I need to now support that choice and show why that choice was right so I need to back up my choice for the iphone oh yeah well you know maybe it messed up today but Alan we know that the pictures are so much better on the iphone we know that the ecosystem makes it so much but you know what I don't care if it fails because eventually when the bug gets fixed I'm at least going to have the ecosystem the ecosystem is the best part of it we see this happening all of the time with political parties don't we democrats versus republicans one party does something wrong and you know let's say I'm a part of a political party x and my my political party does something absolutely wrong I'll just look over it and explain why my party's still better and then political party y does something wrong and my friend who's part of political party y is oh yeah but you know that's okay because we're still better in this way and what happens is if I'm part of political party x and political party y does something bad I'll only see their bad but I won't see any of the good stuff that they do because I have to prove to myself why my decision to vote for political party x was the correct decision then person of political party y will only see all of the bad in political party x and they won't see any of the good because we have to confirm and we have to show that our choice was the right choice even if it's blatantly obvious that something's wrong we see people do this all time with presidents that they vote for and no matter what country that you and I'm sure you see this right you vote for a president the president does something and the person who voted for him will completely miss it and explain why he's still better even though it's blatantly obvious to the thing that he did you know how even though it's blatantly obvious that maybe their party did something or maybe that person sucks why do we do this why do we have to feel I mean if you really think about it it's it's a frail ego is really what it is we as humans want to feel like we're really concrete in who we are what we believe in and what we do a lot of times we don't even like knowing that we're wrong and we don't like being told that we're wrong and we don't like someone proving that we're wrong and we'll do anything to see ways that we're not wrong so we tend to rationalize our choices especially when they're bad why because we have to tell her oh my gosh that was a bad person to vote for oh my gosh that was a bad political party to vote for oh that was a bad you know purchase of my iphone we have to show ourselves why that thing that we decided to do in our past was correct so we have to know who we are nothing makes a and I've worked with thousands of people nothing will shake a person up more than when their beliefs of who they think they are are foundationally shook up it's so hard for them to do it causes something called cognitive dissonance cognitive dissonance means I believe that the world is this way I believe that this is right and this is right and this is right and we can get facts on facts on facts as to why that's wrong and you can literally see somebody attack before listening to going oh I might have actually really been wrong it causes cognitive dissonance the way that I think that the world is is actually not the way that the world is so what's the solution I know that nobody listening to this consciously you know wants to consciously be stuck in their way unopened to hear other people's sides and other people's stories because if we don't open ourselves up to hearing other people's opinions eventually we're going to get old and see Nile and stuck like you've seen people who have been stuck in their ways for a long time and it gets more and more hard and concrete the longer that they live that way so what can we do challenge ourselves when you have a belief ask yourself first off is this my belief or is this a belief that was put into me as a child is this what my parents believed is this what society told me believe is this what my friends believe so I just kind of followed the group challenge your beliefs start asking yourself is this what I truly believe in is this belief right challenge your thoughts challenge your past decisions and be open to the fact that maybe we're not right a lot of times maybe we're wrong a lot of times it's okay and be open to other sides of the road other sides of street other people's opinions thoughts and just think maybe I'm not always right in everything that I believe do different things push yourself outside of your comfort zone go talk to someone who doesn't think the same as you allow yourself to be challenged in ways that you've never been challenged nothing is worse than someone who thinks that they're right stays in that decision for the rest of life and gets old and hard and senile and oh I'm concrete in who I am that's called a fixed mindset I don't know about you I want to have a growth mindset of I can change I can be different I want people to come in and be like you're wrong and this is why you're wrong and I want them to piss me off so I can find my triggers right this is why a lot of people get older and they get ridiculously firm in their beliefs we see it all of the time and so you have to realize we have to be open to not being right all the time we have to be open to learning to the fact that what we believe in isn't correct we have to be open to the fact that you know what the way that I see the world is actually not correct and we have to be okay and not have a small small ego that that just gets shook so easily to go you know what I'm learning I'm growing I made a decision my past it wasn't good I'm trying to improve I'm trying to get better this belief that I have let me challenge let me figure out where it came from let me see if it's actually what I believe in because I don't know about you I can't see want to try to learn and grow and when I understand that these biases exist I understand why I think the way that I think I understand why I act the way that I act and so if you can understand these two cognitive biases number one is confirmation bias be around people and do things that that make you think different that are outside of the way that you think. Ritu is choice supportive bias maybe my decisions in the past weren't right maybe that purchase wasn't right maybe that vote wasn't right whatever it is and realize that to get into something called cognitive dissonance where my worldview is flipped over on top of its head and now I have to start to you know pick up the pieces and put it together is a good thing the more that I can get my brain blown into shreds and then try to pick up all the pieces and put it back together the stronger that I feel my mind gets it's the same way of growing a muscle the only way to grow a muscle is to go in and you know lift really heavy and destroy that muscle for it to grow and destroy that muscle for it to grow and destroy that muscle for it to grow it's the exact same way with your brain and with your mind constantly be challenging yourself constantly to be challenging your beliefs constantly challenging your thoughts and constantly be challenging your past decisions so that you don't allow yourself to get stuck so that your brain isn't always playing tricks on you. Hey thanks so much for watching this video if you want to learn even more about mastering your mind click right here and watch this video as well. You don't go through this life without getting some scars it's just things happen. Who were you before the world told you who you're supposed to be