Powerful Psychology Hack: WYSIATI
We all are familiar with instances when our quick response to a situation is merely based on the limited facts at our disposal.
Our mind is not good at asking for more when it is capable of constructing a decent cohesible story with available sparse information. Laziness…
We are often shocked when consequences start surfacing, and only one question knocks our mind. How could it be possible for me to ignore such an important piece of information!
This effect is explained by:
WYSIATI: WHAT YOU SEE IS ALL THERE IS
This term was first coined by the Israeli-American Psychologist and Economist Daniel Kahneman in his bestseller ‘Thinking Fast and Slow.’ Let’s take an example from his book to set grounds for our further discussion.
“Will Mindik be a good leader?”
“She is intelligent and strong…”
An answer quickly came to your mind, and it was yes.
You picked the best answer based on the minimal information available, but you jumped the gun. What if the next two adjectives were corrupt and cruel?
Let’s try to understand what happened here.
Our mind excels at constructing the best possible story that incorporates ideas currently activated, but it cannot allow for information it does not have. Jumping to conclusions on the basis of limited evidence is the inherent characteristic of our intuitive thinking. It is the consistency of the information that matters for a good story, not its completeness.
The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see, even if they see little. We often falter to allow for the possibility that evidence that should be critical to our judgment is missing-WYSIATI. Furthermore, our associative system tends to settle on a coherent pattern of activation and suppresses doubt and ambiguity.
The statement that “the odds of survival one month after surgery is 90%” is more reassuring than the equivalent statement that “mortality within one month of surgery is 10%.” The equivalence of the alternative formulations is transparent, but an individual normally sees only one formulation, and what she sees is all there is.
You may find your intuitive thinking gullible after the above discussion, but wait, don’t conclude before all arguments are presented-WYSIATI.
Let me be clear that intuitive thinking is a significant reason for evolution. If a man will think of a reason when a lion is in front, it’s sure he won’t be alive by the time he comes to the conclusion that it’s a situation of flight not of wondering whether the lion will attack or not. I hope this makes you understand the importance of our intuitive system.
But here comes the catch, why I am trying to point out the gullibilities of our intuitive mind when it’s such a lifesaver.
Well, Its because now this gullibility is well exploited by advertisers to trap you to buy their products. Let me connect this with a recent experience. I was recently reading an article describing the brands and their mentality while imitating the image of their successful competitors. Yes, there was a brand with similar packaging as that of the Maggi and was placed on the same shelve as of the later. Now, here comes the play. The majority of the customers pick their noodles, seeing the yellow packet of the Maggi: WYSIATI. You only realize the brand of the noodles when you unpack your shopping returning home while giving a careful read to the pack, by then its too late. This is because of a coherent story that your mind has formed of the brand ‘Maggi’ in relation to yellow color noodle bowl (limited information).
There is a pool of examples of manufacturers, playing with the names of famous brands like Nike, Puma, etc. Sometimes you can’t even stop your laughter ride after noticing the subtleties of the logo, packaging, and the naming they adopt (Pumba, Nyke). Yeah, I can see that grin…
On concluding note, I would like to mention that awareness of this effect is essential in today’s world where everyone is trying to exploit you for there personal benefits by showing you only the one side of a coin. I hope that next time while you will be making an important decision, you will be well equipped to give a cross-check to the information provided and will conclude “What You See Isn’t Always All There Is,” and will ask for more information for better decision making if required.
This concludes our article.
I hope this article helped you broaden your understanding of psychology.
Thanks for sticking till last.
‘The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best’ ~Paul Valeri
