Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently

Knowledge Share: Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently by Gregory Berns.

“The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.”

-Martin Luther King Jr

My name is Michael Law, I’m the General Manager at ExperiencePoint. Being the GM of a growing and ever-evolving organization means that I often find myself in situations where I’m presented with a problem that I’ve never had to think about before, let alone solve. In fact, I would say this is true throughout our organization. It is these constant challenges that lead me to research how we make decisions. After reading an article in Fast Company magazine about Gregory Berns’ new book, I was interested to learn more, specifically about how fear affects our perception, and therefore the decisions we make.

Berns breaks all fear down into 3 categories:

Fear of the Unknown

Fear of Failure

Fear of Looking Stupid

What I found to be especially fascinating was how fear affects our perception in a way that can heavily influence the decisions that we make on a neurological level.

The Ellsberg paradox is an experiment used to demonstrate our fundamental aversion to the unknown. In this experiment, 2 urns filled with marbles are place in front of the test subject. The subjects are told that Urn A is filled with 5 white marbles and 5 black marbles while Urn B is filled with an unknown amount of black and white marbles. The subject is advised that they can choose to pick a marble from either urn, and that if they choose a white marble, they will be rewarded with $100. If they choose a black marble, they receive nothing. A simple statistical evaluation shows that the subject should choose Urn B, as there is a higher probability of receiving equal of better odds than Urn A.

Chance of pulling a white marble from Urn A = 50%

Chance that your odds are equal or better to pull a white marble from Urn B

33.3% Chance that there is less that 50% white marbles

33.3% Chance that there is a 50% white marbles

33.3% Chance that there is greater than 50% white marbles

So, the chance that there is equal or better odds in Urn B is equal to 33.3%+33.3%=66.6%. Therefore, the subject should choose Urn B.

Alas, this is rarely the case. Overwhelmingly, the test subjects choose Urn A. Their fear of the unknown affects the way they perceive the situation and forces them to make a bad decision.

One need only look to the ups and downs of the stock market for examples of how the fear of failure affects the decisions that we make whereas the fear of looking stupid is slightly more complex yet equally as effective. In fact, Berns goes into great length to detail how the Asch Experiment proved that not only can the fear of looking stupid affect our perception, but it can affect what we see.

The Asch Experiment, led by Solomon Asch, asked groups of students to participate in a “vision test”. In reality, all but one of the participants were actors and the study was really about analyzing how the only “real” participant would behave.

The subjects were presented with a series of diagrams, much like the one shown below. They were then asked to answer, out loud, which line was identical in length to line X, with the actors always answering before the actual subject. The actors always gave the same answer, and would answer correctly to begin before starting to answer incorrectly.

It is important to note that it is very easily determined which line is a match to line X and yet, participants answered incorrectly 37% of the time as compared to less than 1% in the control group where questions were asked with no pressure or erroneous answers. The results show that fear of appearing stupid, can make pitfalls out of even the simplest of decisions.

Berns points out that being aware that fear can affect decisions allows us to evaluate our own behavior in a way so as be cognoscente of making the right decisions even in the face of fear. As with all things, it does take practice.

I think part of what makes simulations such a valuable learning tool is how they effectively mitigate the three types of fear. Our simulations provide ‘experience in advance’ on thorny topics (fear of the unknown). Simulations allow failure in a no risk environment (fear of failure). Finally, we use competition judiciously in our designs, enough to engage and celebrate success, but not so much as to discourage (fear of looking stupid).

“One who fears the future, who fears failure, limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to begin again.’

- Henry Ford