Overcoming Cognitive Biases with Kabir’s Dohe

Satej Jagatap, First Principle Labs

There is a saying “Ignorance is Bliss”, meaning we do not worry about the things that we are unaware of. For the past few weeks, I’ve been getting to know the human behavioral aspects and this has given me a lot of information that I am yet to comprehend completely. 

Getting to know all the heuristics, cognitive biases and strategies we employ in our decision-making and judgements has rendered me inactive and indecisive. It has definitely caused confusion for most of us, we are trying to reflect on situations and past decisions and trying to gauge what made us act in a certain way. What was the rationale behind that decision? 

While receiving this new information, I fell prey to the blind spot bias ‘other people must be having these biases, but I am not biased’. Then I remembered a saying by Saint Kabir das,

दोस पराए देखि करि , चला हसन्त हसन्त, 

अपनेयाद न आवई, जि नका आदि न अतं 

(Humans have a tendency to laugh at others’ shortcomings while doing this they never realize their own faults and shortcomings which are infinite in number). 

Now that I am aware of my potential to be mistaken by my own thoughts, and the ill-informed and biased decisions that I am capable of making, what could I do about it? Should I start questioning each decision I make? Should I ignore all the biases or should I avoid such situations altogether? Trying to overcome these cognitive traps would appear daunting at times and can make us feel overwhelmed. But remaining confused is not the way ahead, we can surely overcome it. But, how exactly? 

I believe just being aware of such cognitive traps and biases can help us in recognizing similar patterns in our own thinking. Recognizing, isolating and flagging such thoughts and situations will allow us to pause, ponder and decide. But just flagging a plausible suboptimal decision is not enough to overcome it; we may need to employ other strategies too. Thinking about thinking (Metacognition) is one of those ways. Reflecting on the thoughts we have can help us recognize and flag particular cognitive biases. Critically thinking about the situation can provide an effective alternative solution apart from the biased opinion. 

Critically engaging in thought processes is an effective solution, but it is not optimum. This limited cognitive resources situation in the first place has given birth to cognitive biases. So Cognitive biases are the optimum strategies employed by our brains given their limited capacity which sometimes yields suboptimal solutions. Now, this does sound paradoxical. How can an optimum strategy yield a sub-optimal solution? In my understanding, it may have to do with the out-of-context usage of these biases. These biases were developed for some purpose and are now being put to use for something else and hence the suboptimal results. With this understanding, we can move further to overcoming these biases. 

In the Indian context, since early childhood, we have been introduced to Tales of Panchatantra. These are short stories that guide us and prepare us for tackling situations in life. Similarly, we have many saints and sages who have created literature for mental well-being. I believe reading these texts gives us a brief philosophical understanding which can aid us when we engage in critical thinking and can substantially reduce our efforts. 

The anecdotal stories and short poems (Shlokas) have the potential to influence our thoughts since these are written after a critical observation of contextual situations. Situations are similar to what we face during such biased decisions. 

For example, many times we have self-serving biases, fundamental attribution errors, and naive cynicism, to overcome these we should remind ourselves of our limitations too. Here are Kabir’s thoughts on this 

बरुा जो देखन मैंचला, बरुा न मि लि या कोय । 

जो मन देखा आपना, मझु सेबरुा न कोय । 

(When I looked for bad people around me I couldn’t find one, 

but when I looked inside I am the bad person) 

This teaches us to remain humble all the time by reminding us of our potential to do harm driven by ill-informed decisions. 

Cognitive biases like the overconfidence effect, the Dunning Kruger effect may blind us to our weaknesses and flare our ego with false abilities. These times we should remind ourselves of kabir’s sayings 

बड़ो बड़ाई ना तजै, छोटा बहुत इतराय। 

ज्यों प्यादा फरजी भया, टेढ़ा -मेढ़ा जाय। 

(Great people never brag about their greatness, but weak-minded people will pretend their greatness). 

When we find ourselves too confused with decisions and information is overwhelming, we usually become inactive and indecisive. To motivate us to take the right decision to close the intention-action gaps Kabir said 

जि न खोजा ति न पाइया, गहरेपानी पठै , 

मैंबपरुा बडून डरा, रहा कि नारेबठै । 

(Those who seek and dive deep in the ocean will find something at least, but people who are afraid and indecisive will remain on the shore) 

Say one is falling prey to the ostrich effect wherein people often avoid negative information, including feedback that could help them monitor their goal progress. Instead of dealing with the situation, we bury our heads in the sand, like ostriches. 

How to overcome this? One way is to engage in reflection and have honest critics around. As Kabir says 

नि दं क नि येरेराखि ये, आगँ न कुटी छावायें। 

बि न पानी साबनु बि ना, नि र्मलर्म करेसहुाए । 

(We should always keep our critics close in shades of our home, because their criticism will clean our mind without soap and water) 

This teaches us no matter how difficult it is to accept negative feedback we should always look for it.

These philosophical underpinnings can guide us during our critical thinking when we are trying to overcome our biases. 

Now we know that thinking about our biases can help us become better decision-makers but we should be careful and diligent while being so and should negotiate the situation at hand skillfully. Kabir has cautioned us about this situation too 

मन जाणेसब बात जांणत ही औगनु करै। 

काहेकी कुसलात कर दीपक कंूवैपड़े। 

(Our mind knows all the ways to tackle the problem at hand, 

but we again fall in traps of our bad habits, 

same as a person carrying the lamp himself can fall inside the pit) 

At last when we reflect on our thoughts with all the learnings the most important thing is to remain empathetic. Being patient and empathetic at such times is the biggest virtue one can learn from this. That’s why Kabir says 

पोथी पढ़ पढ़ जग मआु , पडिं डित भया न कोय । 

ढाई आखर प्रेम का, पढ़ेसो पडिं डित होय । 

(A man can read all the Literature there is to become wise 

But the one who learns the language of empathy and love is the wisest one) 

Learning Behavioral science has made me realize my shortcomings at the same time has given me hope to overcome these shortcomings. I believe that by learning more, I would be able to make more associations like these which can help me become a better person by being empathetic.