Cognitive Illusions
4 Common Thinking Traps That Sabotage Your Mindset
What Are Cognitive Illusions?!
But first: Do you remember this famous optical illusion?
Hint: In the illusion above, the mouth of the older woman is – get this – the choker of a lady looking away with curly hair…
Woah.
What is an illusion anyway?
According to our dear friends at the Encyclopedia Britannica: “An illusion is a misrepresentation of a ‘real’ sensory stimulus — that is, an interpretation that contradicts objective ‘reality’ as defined by general agreement.”
In other words, an optical illusion is: “Something that tricks your eyes and makes you think you see something that is not really there, or see it differently from how it really is” (Cambridge Dictionary).
So, why do we experience these optical illusions? Researchers believe it’s an evolutionary adaptation that helps us make sense of the world given ambiguous or incomplete information — also to protect ourselves. (Note that this old woman pictured is actually called a “mother-in-law” — so seeing her might remind you to call yours before she gets mad.) What if we told you that there are cognitive illusions too? These are defined as “a common thinking error or thinking trap.” Famously, these are the patterns, heuristics or mental shortcuts that our brain takes to:
Make sense of the world quickly
Reduce cognitive load (aka mental effort)
Keep us alive
Our brains take information and extrapolate a set of things that do not exist — based on experiences, patterns, and the need to help everything fit into a mental bucket.
Unfortunately, our brains are often putting things into a “negative bucket.”
The concept of a cognitive illusion, often referred to as a cognitive bias, is at the cornerstone of behavioral economics and psychology. They are systematic errors in thinking that occur when people process and interpret information in the world around them. While these mental shortcuts are incredibly efficient and often serve us well in rapid decision-making, they can also lead to significant distortions in our perception of reality, influencing our emotions, actions, and overall mindset.
Our brains, in their infinite wisdom and evolutionary programming, are designed to be efficient. Faced with an overwhelming amount of sensory input and complex social interactions, they create mental models and shortcuts – heuristics – to quickly categorize information and make judgments. Imagine if you had to consciously analyze every single piece of data before making even the simplest decision, like stepping out of your house. You'd be paralyzed! These cognitive shortcuts allow us to navigate the world with relative ease. However, the trade-off for this speed is often accuracy. The "negative bucket" mentioned earlier is a common default, as our brains are inherently wired for survival, often prioritizing potential threats and negative outcomes.
Examples include:
Emotional Reasoning – “Jumping to incorrect conclusions based on your feelings” Example: “I must be horrible at my job if my boss keeps giving me feedback on my executive presentations.” Alternative: Maybe they never expected you to get it perfectly done, but rather just to get started so you could discuss it together.
Emotional reasoning is one of the most insidious cognitive illusions because it conflates feelings with facts. We've all been there: feeling anxious before a presentation and concluding, "I'm going to bomb this." Or feeling rejected after a text goes unanswered and thinking, "They must hate me." The core problem here is that emotions, while powerful signals, are not always reliable indicators of objective reality. Our feelings are often a cocktail of past experiences, current stressors, and even physiological states. When we engage in emotional reasoning, we bypass critical thinking and logic, allowing a transient emotion to dictate our interpretation of events. This can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, where our negative feelings influence our actions, which then produce the negative outcome we feared, reinforcing the initial faulty conclusion. To counter this, it's vital to create a space between the feeling and the conclusion, asking: "What are the facts here, independent of how I feel?"
Fortune Telling – “Presuming to know the future” Example: “I can’t believe they excused themselves to the bathroom within 10 minutes — they must be texting their friends for an SOS.” Alternative: Or they are coming from work and didn’t want to be late, so they skipped the bathroom visit to make the initial few minutes of your blind date less awkward.
Fortune telling, or catastrophic thinking, involves making negative predictions about future events without sufficient evidence. It's the mental habit of jumping to the worst-case scenario, often based on minimal or ambiguous cues. This illusion is fueled by anxiety and a desire for certainty, even if that certainty is negative. For instance, receiving an unexpected email from your boss might instantly trigger the thought, "I'm about to get fired," even if the email is innocuous. This kind of thinking can lead to excessive worrying, avoidance of new experiences, and a reluctance to take risks. It robs us of the present moment and creates unnecessary stress about a future that often never materializes as we predicted. Challenging fortune-telling requires actively seeking alternative explanations and acknowledging the sheer number of variables that influence future events, most of which are beyond our control and certainly beyond our current knowledge.
Overgeneralizing – “Making overreaching assumptions when given a set of facts” Example: “They don’t respect my time.” Alternative: Or they truly had an emergency call come through for a family member.
Overgeneralization is the tendency to draw broad, sweeping conclusions based on a single, isolated event or a limited set of observations. One negative experience becomes representative of all similar experiences. If a presentation goes poorly, an overgeneralizer might conclude, "I'm a terrible public speaker and will always fail." If one person is late to a meeting, the thought becomes, "Everyone is always late and disrespects my time." This cognitive illusion often uses absolute terms like "always," "never," "everyone," or "no one." It creates a distorted view of reality, leading to rigid beliefs that limit our potential and foster a sense of hopelessness. Breaking free from overgeneralization involves challenging these absolute statements and actively looking for counter-examples or alternative explanations that broaden our perspective beyond a single instance.
Shoulding – “Excessive self-criticism” Example: “I am just not the person I used to be. If I was a more effective human, I should be able to start working on this business idea.” Alternative: You just have too much going on to start something new, or the project needs to be broken up into smaller pieces.
"Shoulding" (also known as "should statements") involves holding rigid, often unrealistic expectations of ourselves and others, typically expressed with words like "should," "must," "ought to," or "have to." When we fail to meet these self-imposed, often arbitrary standards, it leads to intense feelings of guilt, shame, frustration, and inadequacy. This cognitive illusion is a major contributor to perfectionism and chronic self-criticism. For instance, believing "I should always be productive" ignores the natural need for rest and recovery. Telling yourself "I shouldn't feel sad" invalidates legitimate emotions. Should statements are often inherited from societal expectations, upbringing, or an idealized self-image. They create an oppressive internal critic that constantly judges and finds fault. The alternative perspective often involves embracing flexibility, self-compassion, and recognizing that "good enough" is often perfectly sufficient. It's about replacing rigid demands with preferences and understanding that human experience is messy and imperfect.
While cognitive illusions are evolutionarily meaningful, they’re also not always meant to be trusted. Why?
They’re illusions. Statistical predictions. Meant to be looked at… from different directions. Just like the photo above.
It's fascinating how our brains operate on these shortcuts! Did you know that Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, a pioneer in behavioral economics, highlighted how these "cognitive biases" often lead us to make irrational decisions, even when we believe we're being logical? His work really shines a light on just how much these mental shortcuts influence our everyday thinking (Kahneman, 2011). Kahneman's seminal work, particularly "Thinking, Fast and Slow," distinguishes between two systems of thinking: System 1, which is fast, intuitive, and emotional (where cognitive illusions often operate), and System 2, which is slower, more deliberate, and logical. He demonstrates how our reliance on System 1, while efficient, can lead to predictable errors in judgment. Understanding this dual-process model of thinking is the first step in recognizing when our fast, intuitive brain might be leading us astray.
The pervasive nature of these thinking traps means they can insidiously sabotage our mindset, affecting our relationships, career, personal well-being, and even our physical health (without us even realizing they’re there!). When we consistently interpret ambiguous situations through a negative lens, we cultivate a sense of helplessness, anxiety, and resentment. This constant negative self-talk erodes self-esteem and limits our ability to see opportunities or bounce back from setbacks. Recognizing that these aren't objective truths but rather "illusions" – misinterpretations – is the crucial first step toward regaining control over our internal narrative and self-talk.
How do you catch these illusions, so they don’t rule your days, weeks, and years?
With Mental Fitness.
Working on daily mind movements helps you catch these moments, and shift your perspective to think more productively each and every day. Mental fitness, much like physical fitness, requires consistent effort and targeted exercises. It's about building resilience, developing self-awareness, and equipping yourself with tools to challenge unhelpful thought patterns. It's not about eradicating negative thoughts entirely – that's an unrealistic goal – but rather about observing them without judgment and consciously choosing a more constructive response. This involves cultivating metacognition, which is the ability to think about your thinking. When you can step back and observe your thoughts, rather than being swept away by them, you gain the power to challenge their validity and choose a different path.
4 small ways to practice Mental Fitness (and beat those cognitive illusions):
Mindfulness Meditation: This helps you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings in the present moment, without getting entangled in them. It cultivates the ability to observe your cognitive illusions as they arise, giving you a chance to pause and re-evaluate.
Cognitive Restructuring (from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - CBT): This is a structured approach to identifying, challenging, and changing irrational or unhelpful thought patterns. It involves questioning the evidence for your thoughts, considering alternative explanations, and evaluating the utility of your thinking.
Speed Writing: Setting up a timer to “brain dump” or writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you identify recurring patterns of cognitive illusions. Seeing them on paper often provides clarity and distance, making them easier to challenge.
Seeking Different Perspectives: Actively asking others for their viewpoints on a situation can reveal alternative explanations that you might have overlooked due to your own cognitive biases.
Drawing: Drawing how you’re feeling instead of writing can be a powerful way to see things differently.
By actively working to identify and reframe cognitive illusions, you can reclaim control over your mindset and build a more productive and fulfilling internal dialogue…and therefore experience on this planet earth.
Which of these illusions are you most privy to?
Which Mental Fitness exercise will you try first?