Errors in Judgment of Behaviors

There is much conversation on the role of biases in cognition. However, the source of bias and the detection of bias are both in our own selves. Some contemporary errors in judgment are possible, and knowing them better can help us clarify issues for our own benefit. Here are a few.

1.       Need for Recognition Vs Publicity

With the advent of social media, the logical adequacy of online clicks has fuelled an appetite for recognition and mutual admiration. However, the boundary between the netizen’s desire for publicity and the internal need for recognition may go unrecognised. So, you count your chances of finding a producer of bitumen approaching your eyeballs via the net.

2.       Narcissism Vs Self-Assurance

The story of Narcissus is incomplete without its moral. It is about finding our image in the eyes of others. Self-assured people not only accept themselves as they are, they know that they see the world as they are and not as it is. Self-assurance is knowing that independent of oneself, there is no ‘knowing’ of the reality without the self. Narcissists know no reality more than their own selves construct.

3.       Online Followership vs Thought Leadership

There are many ‘followers’ on the online network Twitter in the English reading world. Oprah Winfrey and Amitabh Bachchan  are attractors. However, in contrast, it is Eckhart Tolle and the Dalai Lama that command my respect on the same network. Getting online is no panacea to dealing with our emotional, analytical and spiritual essence. Perhaps, Dersu in Kurosawa’s film may never have needed online followership, and his indigenous wisdom of nature a thought leadership that neon flickers and laborless keyboards seldom grace.

4.       Non-hostile conduct vs ethical conduct

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil seems a cascade into inaction at times. In rushed inference, it could mean to many that a steady abstinence from interaction could be a safe-mode of non-hostile posture. It is easy to miss the ethical tangle here. Voice is a gift that when used could express anguish, hope and joy among other emotions. Silence does not confirm consent. It does not accrete competence in ethics either.

5.       Respectability vs Necessary Norm

Total cockalorum. A little man with a high opinion of himself, that’s what a cockalorum is. It is a derisive title. In societies where face or honor is a matter of great sensitive value, people seek respectability regardless of the merit of the occasion.  Social norms demanding respect could overdo the substance by which respectability can endear.