Understanding Lazy Brain Biases and Their Impact on Decision-Making

In this episode of The Brainy Business podcast, Melina Palmer explores the fascinating world of lazy brain biases. This episode is part of an eight-part series exploring various biases, focusing on how our brains prefer to take the path of least resistance. This rapid-fire episode provides a brief overview of each bias, helping you understand their roles, interactions, and impacts on decision-making.

Melina refreshes this episode in anticipation of her upcoming interview with Alex Edmonds about his book May Contain Lies, which discusses misinformation and the importance of understanding information responsibly. Lazy brain biases play a significant role in how we process and accept information, making this episode a perfect primer for the conversation with Alex.

In this episode:

• Discover how the default effect influences our choices.
• Learn about the decoy effect and its impact on decision-making.
• Understand the automation bias and its implications in a tech-driven world.
• Explore the law of the instrument and functional fixedness.
• Gain insights into framing, anchoring, and the contrast effect.
• Examine biases and their influence on decision-making.
• Identify how surrogation and Parkinson's Law of Triviality affect business decisions.
• Learn strategies to push your brain’s limits and overcome lazy tendencies.

00:00:00 - Introduction Melina introduces the episode and its focus on lazy brain biases, part of an eight-part series on biases.

00:02:30 - Default Effect Melina discusses the default effect, where people tend to choose the default option presented to them.

00:04:00 - Decoy Effect The decoy effect is explained with examples from espresso machines and The Economist subscription options.

00:06:00 - Automation Bias Melina talks about our excessive dependence on automated systems and the importance of checking their effectiveness.

00:07:30 - Law of the Instrument and Functional Fixedness These biases are discussed with examples like the Apollo 13 mission.

00:09:00 - Framing and Anchoring Melina explains how framing and anchoring influence our decisions, with links to related episodes.

00:10:30 - Contrast Effect The impact of priming and previously presented information on decision-making is discussed.

00:12:00 - Biases Melina explains how our senses influence our external decisions, using judges' sentencing patterns as an example.

00:13:30 - Ambiguity Effect and Action Bias These biases are explored with examples from medical decisions and soccer goalies.

00:15:00 - Stereotyping and Illicit Transference Melina discusses how our brains make assumptions about groups and individuals.

00:16:30 - Surrogation The concept of surrogation is explained with an example of customer satisfaction surveys.

00:18:00 - Parkinson's Law of Triviality Also known as bikeshedding, this bias is discussed with examples from pricing strategies.

00:19:30 - Lag Effect and Levels of Processing Melina talks about effective learning strategies and how to trick your lazy brain into focusing.

00:21:00 - List Length Effect The impact of list length on memory is discussed, encouraging listeners to push their brain's limits.

00:22:30 - Conclusion What stuck with you while listening to the episode? What are you going to try? Come share it with Melina on social media -- you'll find her as @thebrainybiz everywhere and as Melina Palmer on LinkedIn.

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Check out and get your copies of Melina’s Books. 

Get the Books Mentioned on (or related to) this Episode:

• May Contain Lies, by Alex Edmans
• Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
• Nudge, by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein
• What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell You, by Melina Palmer
• Evolutionary Ideas, by Sam Tatam

Top Recommended Next Episode: Functional Fixedness (ep 194)

Already Heard That One? Try These: 

• Anchoring & Adjustment (ep 394)
• Bikeshedding (ep 99)
• Priming (ep 252)
• Color Theory (ep 61)
• 5 Things Your Business Must Learn From NASA (ep 57)

Other Important Links: 

• Brainy Bites - Melina’s LinkedIn Newsletter
• The Greatest Space Hack Ever
• This Is the Actual Hack That Saved the Astronauts of the Apollo XIII
• Apollo Expeditions to the Moon – A Square Peg in a Round Hole
• Action Bias Among Elite Soccer Goalkeepers: the Case of Penalty Kicks
• Action Bias and Environmental Decisions
• The Inaction Effect in the Psychology of Regret