Types of Bad Thinking Habits

We are all vic­tims of bad think­ing habits.

But by know­ing (and under­stand­ing) where we often make think­ing mis­takes, we increase our chances of detect­ing mis­takes before mak­ing poor decisions.

I’ve lis­ted sev­er­al of these think­ing habits so that we all can be more mind­ful and hope­fully become bet­ter thinkers.

Here we go:

Types of Bad Thinking Habits

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Types of Bad Thinking Habits

Underpinning most of our think­ing mis­takes, some psy­cho­lo­gic­ally induced think­ing habits seem to affect our abil­ity to think clearly. Understanding (and avoid­ing) these beha­vi­our­al pat­terns should allow for clear thinking.

• Biased think­ing involves pro­cessing inform­a­tion that aligns with pre­con­ceived notions or pref­er­ences, often dis­reg­ard­ing con­tra­dict­ory evid­ence. It can mani­fest as con­firm­a­tion bias, favour­ing inform­a­tion that con­firms exist­ing beliefs.
• Fallacious think­ing encom­passes logic­ally flawed reas­on­ing. Fallacies are com­mon errors in reas­on­ing that under­mine the logic of an argument.
• Unfocused think­ing refers to a lack of con­cen­tra­tion or dir­ec­tion in thought pro­cesses. It can lead to dif­fi­culties in prob­lem-solv­ing and decision-mak­ing, as thoughts may wander without reach­ing a con­clu­sion or logic­al endpoint.
• Catastrophic think­ing is a cog­nit­ive dis­tor­tion in which one assumes the worst will hap­pen. It often involves mag­ni­fy­ing the poten­tial con­sequences of an event, lead­ing to excess­ive worry or anxiety.
• Wishful think­ing involves mak­ing decisions or form­ing beliefs based on what is pleas­ing to ima­gine rather than on evid­ence, ration­al­ity, or real­ity. It often involves an optim­ism bias, where one over­es­tim­ates favour­able outcomes.
• Unsubstantiated think­ing involves form­ing opin­ions or beliefs without sup­port­ing evid­ence or rationale. It can res­ult from a lack of crit­ic­al think­ing, where asser­tions are accep­ted without ques­tion­ing the valid­ity of the evidence.
• Unfinalised think­ing isn’t widely recog­nized in cog­nit­ive psy­cho­logy, but it can be inter­preted as think­ing pro­cesses that are not fully developed. It might involve jump­ing to con­clu­sions without con­sid­er­ing all aspects or per­spect­ives of an issue.
• Heuristic think­ing uses men­tal short­cuts or rules of thumb to make quick, effi­cient judg­ments. While often use­ful, these short­cuts can lead to biases and errors in judg­ment. (Examples: overgen­er­al­iz­a­tion, over­sim­pli­fic­a­tion, over-ste­reo­typ­ing, over-polar­isa­tion, etc.)
• Groupthink occurs when a group’s desire for har­mony or con­form­ity res­ults in irra­tion­al or dys­func­tion­al decision-mak­ing. Individual group mem­bers sup­press dis­sent­ing opin­ions, decreas­ing crit­ic­al eval­u­ation of alternatives.

Understanding these dif­fer­ent types of think­ing can help identi­fy and address cog­nit­ive fal­la­cies and biases in decision-mak­ing and prob­lem-solv­ing processes.

Learn more: Types of Bad Thinking Habits

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PR Resource: More Better Thinking

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Doctor Spin’s PR School: Be Clear-Minded

• Mental Models: How To Be Better a Better Thinker
• 10 Intelligence Types: Howard Gardner’s Theory
• How To Create Knowledge
• Types of Bad Thinking Habits
• Principles of Clear Thinking
• My Mind Palace (and How It Helps Me To Think Better)
• Image Streaming — Unleash Your Inner Genius

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PR Resource: List of Logical Fallacies and Biases

List of Logical Fallacies and Biases

We eas­ily fall prey to the tricks our psy­cho­logy plays on us. These “think­ing errors” exist because they’ve often aided our sur­viv­al. However, know­ing and under­stand­ing vari­ous types of com­mon fal­la­cies and biases is help­ful in every­day life.

Here are a few examples of logic­al fal­la­cies and biases that I’ve come across while study­ing pub­lic rela­tions and linguistics:

Learn more: 58 Logical Fallacies and Biases