Let's change our minds!

Did you know that we are born with an innate Yes Man in all of us? Let's dive a bit deeper into it...

I guess everybody of you has experienced at least one time in his life this cognitive bias which reinforces our beliefs. In practice, it is so that we tend to give more emphasis and accreditation to the proofs of our previous made thesis rather than acknowledge whether our suggestions are failing in some way. Not that smart, is it?

To go back to the first question - I believe, it is nice to have a Yes Man around. Someone who tells you, you are right and confirms your way of seeing things. Somebody like that obviously makes you feel more confident and less alone in the world. This is ultimately the reason why we always choose people around us that for instance have similar hobbies, visions or credos.

The issue how stated earlier is that with this given reinforcement of our beliefs, we could blind ourselves as we would only see the things which work in favour of our idea and not against it. By doing so, we are basically prejudiced against someone or something...

Now that we noticed the matter, we can actually put more attention to it.  

Since I was a kid, my Mom always told me that changing one's mind is sign of intelligence. Maybe this could be a bias in itself but I have analysed the story:
If you changed your mind, there was actually at least one point of view that made the needle of the scale drop to one side rather than the other where it was in the beginning.... And this point of view broadened your mindset! Now you do not see only the half the you already were conscious of, you also see the other half and can decide appropriately!

Probably, to change your mind you should be good in giving second chances... in not taking everything for given - questioning and maybe also trying to see things from other perspectives. The more chances you give, the bigger the likelihood to find the right chance!

 ... Exactly like in the goat game... Back in the days, there was this tv show where you had to guess behind which of the three doors a goat was hiding and you had two decisions to make. You could decide once and then the host would ask you if you would like to change your answer. By changing your answer after the host had opened one of the two remaining possible doors, your probabilities to win increased!

As we have seen, you win more, if you change your mind - a nice incentive to broaden our mindsets, isn't it?!