Change in habits, behaviors, attitudes

From bias, to change, to heartfelt priorities—how do we learn what sticks long-term?

Mille Miglia, Cervia, RA — June 13, 2023.

I’ve been thinking about the question of change that sticks more in the last few years than I have in the past. Because pandemics and emergencies have a way of focusing attention on the few things that matter.

It’s impossible to predict something in the early days of fluid and complex situations.

But that doesn’t prevent many from trying. Much of the research I’ve read as situations develop suffers from availability heuristic, confirmation bias, and small sample size—for starters.

Cognitive biases, we’re not leaving home without them.

We misremember, we lean into what we believe, we infer too much from too little—and we get in trouble with a straight face. That’s mostly because there are gaps between what people say and what they do.

Feel free to add other biases¹ you’ve observed. I don’t know if you’ve ever wondered why there are so many cognitive biases. There must be some reason they survived through the centuries to modern day.