Why do we act irrationally?

On April 26, the conference "Cognitive biases in information processing" was held, organized by the School of Communication of the University of Azuay.

The guest was Marta Cerezo, who is a researcher at the University of Salamanca, graduated in Audiovisual Communication and has a master's degree in Research in Audiovisual Communication.

His lines of research are focused on social marketing, communication for health, behavioral sciences, public policies and design and usability.

The expert began her presentation with the questions about how we think, how we decide and how we process information.

He mentioned two theories, the classical and the contemporary: in the classical the human being is rational, he is never wrong, he acts out of his own interest; In contemporary theory, based on philosophy, human beings make wrong decisions, based on their emotions, causing them not to act properly.

The speaker also explored two processing systems, the automatic and the reflective: in the first, the human being acts on impulse, by intuitive effect; in the second, he reflects on a problem, analyzes the situation before acting.

Marta Cerezo said that these two systems have their advantages and disadvantages, but at the same time they complement each other. However, there are countless biases today that can help unravel the question of why we fail in our decisions.

One is the inclination of the brain that seeks immediate reward versus future gratification. Another is when people seek information that fits the ideas they have, that is, what supports their beliefs or hypotheses. Finally, when things are done just because the people around them do it (a clear example of “the influencers”).

In conclusion, the speaker stated that cognitive biases influence the way humans see the world, but also indicated that there is benefit from it.

For example, companies use biases to have more sales, political parties to have more votes, and the media to have more audience.

UDA Correspondent