Desert Bees and Cognitive Biases

Somewhere in that frenzied mass of cactus honey bees is a single irresistible female bee. Minutes ago young male bees emerged from their underground birthing chambers. They immediately pursued their objects of desire. The purpose of the struggle was to be the solitary successful inseminator.

While we systemically flatter ourselves that we humans are unlike other species in that we are in control of our thinking, we habitually engage in mental biases that distort our thinking. A central task of critical thinking is to ask questions of ourselves and others that identify mental habits that harm our decision making.

For example, again and again we tell ourselves and others that we will complete a task before we, in fact, do finish the activity. This cognitive bias is a close relative of the mother of a large proportion of cognitive stumbling blocks, “the romance with ourselves.”  We persistently exaggerate our prowess rating ourselves as more advanced in skill areas where we know the least. The more one knows about a skill area the more we realize our limits in that domain because we now know so many dimensions involved in using the skill.

We distinguish ourselves as human, not because we lack drives and persistent mental frailties; we have both of these.  We distinguish ourselves by our knowledge of the existence of patterns of cognitive flaws. That knowledge should provide us with the humility to hold our conclusions with a light grip.