Fifth question: are we managing our mind well?

We cannot trust our mind. Like all human minds, our mind tends to produce distorted thoughts and struggles to think objectively. The human mind is by its nature a social mind, made to be able to deal with others rather then to analyze problems rationally, especially biological or medical problems. If need be we are able to think objectively but this requires a significant effort.

Since antiquity, philosophers have agreed that the common human line of reasoning is defective and full of fallacies, as they say in the logical-philosophical tradition. Scientific psychology has extensively demonstrated this: it has showed that we all make errors in reasoning irrespective of our education level, skills and intelligence. It has also described in detail the cognitive biases, namely the systematic distortions created by our mind and has analyzed their mechanisms and main reasons. To see first-hand that this is how our mind works, if we have never done this, let’s try the Wason  test.  

Click on the button at the bottom of the page to go to the test.

 

Our emotional state during the disease can further worsen our mental performance. But precisely because we are facing the problem of the disease we need to be able to reason better than ever, to be detached and objective. We are being asked to take decisions that are too important. Thus, we must learn how to manage our mind.

Making our mind capable of reasoning in an objective way when in need is an art that we need to develop. Essentially, it is based on metacognition that means reflecting on our own process of thinking, knowing what our typical errors in reasoning are and correcting our mind every time it proposes them to us. In order to develop the skill of metacognition we need to know first of all when our mind deceives us and what mistakes it gets us to make in those circumstances. We must also remember to reason on our reasoning and train ourselves to do this. Discussing and confronting ourselves with others can be very helpful to find and correct mistakes.

At the time of making a decision, knowing and managing our mind may turn out to be essential. For example, we do not tend to evaluate correctly the probability that something will happen. We are influenced by the way in which a certain probability is presented to us. It is not the same for us if we are told that a surgery has 30% probability of causing complications or if we are told that 70% of cases do not report complications or that one out of three cases report complications and two out of three do not. Fear can also alter our perception of a certain probability. If we are told that the potential complications are serious and even deadly, 30% or even one out of three probabilities are perceived as higher.

Mistakes in our perception of probability, like other errors made by our mind, can influence us to the extent of making wrong choices. It may happen that we overestimate the risks of a certain treatment or, on the contrary, that we underestimate them. A progression of the disease can lead us to erroneously think that things are degenerating and induce us to make choices about what therapies to follow which may be risky and rushed. The opposite may happen: we underestimate what is happening and do nothing when it would be better to act.