How Our Own Brain Tricks Us: Understanding Cognitive Biases

We’re used to trusting what goes on in our heads—after all, if we can’t trust ourselves, who can we trust? But the truth is, you can’t always rely on your brain, because it’s prone to what are called cognitive biases. No, your brain isn’t lying to you on purpose—it’s just that, over the course of your life, it forms faulty connections that can cause you to misinterpret what’s happening. Let’s break down what cognitive biases are and what you can do about them.

What Are Cognitive Biases?

Cognitive biases are inherently skewed perspectives on the world around us—irrational thoughts and beliefs that we unconsciously reinforce over time.

These patterns and systems of thinking are often hard to spot: once they become a regular part of your daily thoughts, they’re incredibly difficult to recognize. That’s exactly why they can be so destructive—you don’t see them as a mistake, a problem, or something that needs to change.

If you’re human, you’ve probably experienced some form of cognitive bias, and that’s totally normal. The difference between people who only encounter biases occasionally and those who struggle with them constantly is the ability to identify and correct these faulty thinking patterns. But before we get into how to do that, let’s look at the different types of cognitive biases, most of which have been studied by renowned experts in psychiatry and psychotherapy, Aaron Beck and David Burns.

The Big List of Cognitive Biases

• Personalization: You take things personally that have nothing to do with you, seeing events as a result of your actions when there are actually other reasons. For example, a coworker snaps at you and you assume it’s because you asked a dumb question, when really they just didn’t get enough sleep.
• Mind Reading: You assume you know what others are thinking and are sure you’re right, even though you can’t actually know what’s going on in someone else’s head.
• Negative Predictions: You do something but aren’t confident about it, and immediately assume the outcome will be negative—often exaggerating how bad it could be.
• Underestimating Your Ability to Cope: When things go wrong, you’re convinced you’ll never be able to handle it. Others might manage, but not you.
• Catastrophizing: You see any unpleasant event, no matter how minor, as a total disaster that could ruin your life (and always in a negative way).
• Focusing on Signs of Social Rejection and Ignoring Acceptance: You think everyone is against you, so if someone yawns while you’re talking, it must mean you’re boring. Meanwhile, you ignore positive signals, like someone sitting closer to you to hear better.
• Negatively Biased Memories of Social Interactions: When recalling a social situation, like a party, you focus on the negative (like telling an awkward joke) and ignore all the good moments.
• Assuming Lack of Positive Signals Means Something’s Wrong: Your partner didn’t send a heart emoji after “good night”? Must mean they don’t love you anymore!
• Unrealistically High Standards: You believe that only by constantly striving for the highest standards can you avoid disaster. If you finish a work task in two hours instead of one, you’re sure you’ll get fired.
• Special Rules for Yourself: You naively believe that rules that apply to others shouldn’t apply to you—because you’re different!
• Justification and Moral Permission: You turn a blind eye to ethical issues because you think the end justifies the means. For example, tweaking documents to get a promotion, telling yourself it’s not really hurting anyone.
• Belief in a Just World: Not just “good will triumph over evil,” but thinking that if someone is poor, it’s because they deserve it, ignoring other factors outside their control.
• Seeing Things Only from Your Perspective: You can’t see a problem from your partner’s point of view, even if you try.
• Belief That Self-Criticism Is Motivating: It’s not. Criticizing yourself just drains your energy and makes it harder to improve.
• All-or-Nothing Thinking: “If I’m not with this girl, I’m a total loser,” while ignoring all your other achievements.
• Using Feelings as Evidence When There’s No Objective Proof: You polish your shoes until they shine, but still feel like they’re not clean enough. (Check for OCD!)
• Delusions: You stubbornly believe something that’s been proven false, even when there’s overwhelming evidence to the contrary. For example, someone with anorexia believing they’re overweight at 66 pounds.
• Believing Your Current Feelings Will Last Forever: You get rejected and feel awful, and are sure you’ll feel this way for the rest of your life.
• Cognitive Labeling: You mentally label someone as a “loser” or “drama queen” and stick to it, even when evidence shows otherwise.
• Halo Effect: Thinking a hamburger isn’t that unhealthy if you wash it down with diet soda.
• Downplaying Achievements: You get recognized at work but are convinced you didn’t deserve it or that it doesn’t mean anything.
• Cognitive Exaggeration: Blowing your mistakes and flaws out of proportion, making them seem bigger than they are. It’s like catastrophizing, but a bit less extreme.
• Blaming Others: Do you really need an example? We’ve all done this at some point.
• Focusing on Money Saved, Not Spent: Falling for “buy this much and get the cheapest item free” deals, not realizing you’re actually overspending.
• Overvaluing Things Because They’re Yours: Of course your child is the cutest, your partner the most loving, and your home better than your neighbor’s.
• Lack of Alternative Explanations: You fixate on one explanation (“he’s not calling because he was kidnapped”) and ignore more likely ones (“he’s just not interested”).
• Self-Serving Bias: Attributing success to your own character and failures to external factors.
• Assumed Similarity: Assuming others share your opinions or views (spoiler: they usually don’t).
• In-Group Bias: Trusting and valuing people who are like you or in your circle more than those from different backgrounds.
• Underestimating How Long Tasks Take: Hello, deadlines! We all think we’ll finish in an hour—yeah, right.
• Belief That Overthinking Will Solve Problems: Actually, overthinking makes problem-solving harder because you get stuck in a loop and lose perspective.
• Hidden Bias: Remember, you might subconsciously hold biases (like thinking people from certain regions are different or that one city’s residents are more cultured than another’s)—being aware helps you correct them.
• Preference for Familiar Things: Familiarity breeds affection, so people often stick to their habits or brands, even if it means overpaying instead of trying something new.
• Belief in Multitasking: Sorry, multitasking doesn’t exist—you’re just switching attention between tasks, which is actually bad for your brain.
• Overly Positive Predictions: Believing that this year, you’ll definitely get fit if you start going to the gym on January 1st—even though it hasn’t worked for the past five years.
• Assuming Repeating the Same Behavior Will Yield Different Results: Reminding your husband to hang that shelf every day, even though it’s clear this strategy isn’t working—it’s time to try something else.

How to Deal with Cognitive Biases

First, you need to restore more balanced thinking and learn to recognize thoughts that pop up automatically.

As mentioned above, automatic thoughts are involuntary reactions everyone has. They can be triggered by external stimuli or internal ones, like emotions, physical sensations, or memories. Automatic thoughts often seem plausible, so if you believe them, they can deeply affect your emotional state.

To catch these thoughts, try writing them down. To balance your thinking, you need to understand exactly what thoughts and images are coming into your head. It’s recommended to keep a journal and jot down your thoughts whenever you notice a significant change in your feelings—this is a clear sign that an automatic thought has appeared. Record not just the thought or image, but also the situation in which it appeared and how you felt at that moment.

Becoming aware of cognitive biases can help normalize them. Take another look at the list above and honestly ask yourself, “Do I recognize myself in any of these situations?”

The next step is cognitive restructuring, or challenging the content of negative automatic thoughts. You can do this by weighing the pros and cons. It’s usually easy to find reasons why your thought is true, but harder to see why you might be wrong. Still, give it a try—and if you can’t do it alone, consider reaching out to a professional.

Finally, the last stage is reinforcement—making your new, restructured thinking a habit. One method is to learn to “forget” automatic thoughts. Yes, we know, we just told you to write them down, but the next step—after you’ve mastered journaling—is to process the same information in your head. Over time, this kind of mental analysis will become second nature, and you’ll stop noticing as you filter out unhelpful, automatic thinking and replace it with objective thoughts.