The illusion of focus: are we really happy?

Daniel Kahneman's work shows that we have a biased view of our happiness.

In previous articles we talked about the complexity of happiness due to the presence of two Egos that take into account different elements to assess the degree of happiness in our life. To this we must add the frequent errors in thinking present in the nature of our mind.

The number of cognitive biases that human beings commit in our daily lives is well known. in our daily lives is well known and developed by psychologists such as Dan Ariely and Daniel Kahneman due to the limitation of three of our cognitive processes: attention, perception and memory.

However, the bias we humans commit the most when it comes to thinking about our happiness is a cognitive error known as the illusion of focus..

What is the illusion of focus?

In his research on happiness, Kahneman adds this bias as a distorting element of our perception of reality. a distorting element in our perception of reality, which leads us to assess our level of life satisfactionIt leads us to evaluate our level of satisfaction with life based on the most accessible information at the present moment.

This is a cognitive bias or error in human thinking that consists of the distortion of the importance that an aspect can have on our happiness at the moment in which we are at the moment we are thinking about it. In other words, it is the unfortunate fact that we cannot think about any circumstance that affects well-being without distorting its importance.

The order of questions experiment

A well-known experiment that highlights this bias and the distortion of our elaborated judgments in the face of timely information is one in which students are asked to evaluate, in general, the well-being of their lives. They are then asked how many dates they have had in the past month. The correlation between the scores on these questions is insignificant (0.012). The questions are answered independently.

However, if we reverse their order and ask first about dating and then about happiness, the correlation increases to 0.012 (0.012). the correlation increases to 0.66. One question influences the other. The order of the questions affected their response. A cognitive distortion based on the change of focus.

Through this experiment, the influence of the illusion of focus is reflected, which according to Kahneman can be described with the following phrase: "nothing in life is as important as we think it is when we think about it".

Conclusion

As much as it may weigh on us, this thinking mechanism influences all aspects of our lives, and leads us to act in a way that may not be close to what really makes us happy.. That is why, on many occasions, we overestimate the importance of buying that car, joining the gym, starting that relationship, investing in a new business, adopting a dog... and how that will increase our degree of well-being when, in reality, we may be falling victim to this cognitive bias.

If we can take anything away from this finding of our psyche, it is that nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you're thinking about it.. Human well-being always depends on the illusion of your focus.

Bibliographical references:

• Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking fast, thinking slow. Barcelona: Debate, 2012. ISBN-13: 978-8483068618.