Behavioural Factors: Cognitive Biases and Dissonance, Anomie, and Alienation (Or How We Humans Mess Things Up)

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter addresses how human behaviour influences our ability to make objective decisions when faced with (perceived) uncertainty. The often unsettling nature of uncertainty allows for a variety of behavioural conditions to play out. In turn these conditions act as barriers when attempting to assess objectively the nature of uncertainty. These behavioural conditions include a whole range of cognitive biases, misapplied heuristics, cognitive dissonance, as well as social anomie (and alienation). An overall proposition of this book is that uncertainty is really a “known-unknown” and therefore can be managed. However, it is argued that the manifestation of those behavioural conditions highlighted above, such as cognitive biases, tends to drive our decision-making processes into accepting all too readily that uncertainty is an “unknown-unknown” which in turn absolves decision-makers from responsibility when things go wrong.KeywordsCognitive biasMisapplied heuristicsIntuitive trapsExpert opinionCognitive dissonanceAnomieAlienationExperience