Lose The Fear Of Making Mistakes: Tolerance For Error
Making mistakes is one of people’s most recurring fears despite the stoicism with which Greek or Roman philosophy took it (I will err humanum est, which Seneca the Younger said). Or, rather, we fear the expected consequences of errors, which for the vast majority tend to be catastrophes imagined in advance that cause a lot of psychological discomfort, and quite a few blockages when it comes to making decisions.
We understand by error, in principle, a misaligned or invalid assessment in its field of application, either when making decisions or executing actions as a result of this decision. We know it is mismatched because the prediction of the results that we have made is not fulfilled. Of course, we classify it as a mistake if this mismatch has a negative balance, because if it is the opposite and we obtain an unexpected benefit, it will immediately become a success despite the dissonance.
There have been numerous studies on how we manage errors ; from various fields of study and more or less all point to the direction indicated by Buss and Haselton (2000) in their theory of error management. In short, when we have to make a decision on a matter that involves a certain degree of uncertainty, we can make two types of errors.
In type I errors, or false positives, we predict that an event will occur that ultimately does not occur, while in type II errors, or false negatives, we bet that an event that later occurs will not happen. The theory maintains that when deciding it is not possible to minimize both probabilities; We either reduce one or we reduce the other.
Which is better? It depends on the perceived cost, and therefore on the context. If I need to design a fire protection system or I am an engineer, I will tend to minimize the type II ones, which would be a real disaster; an alarm should tend towards false positives for obvious reasons. But in general, we tend to opt for more prudent options if we expect to make profits, while in a loss scenario we are more willing to take risks (Johnson, 2013).
How do mistakes occur?
Most decisions are made what Kahneman and other authors call system 1 or autopilot of our mental processes.
Anyone who has tried to put dirty dishes in the refrigerator or searched for glasses around the house while wearing them on their head knows that our automations fail. But nevertheless, the margin of inaccuracy is a tribute worth paying in exchange for the speed, efficiency and ability to adapt to the environment that this automatic method offers. The most important decisions will ideally be made with the intervention of system 2, whose action is voluntary, reflective and involves much greater effort.
In general, when we believe we have made a mistake, is due to a lack of information when taking a course of action, either because it is inaccessible (it is very difficult to know what the work environment will be like in that brand new job that we have gotten and that seems like an excellent opportunity) or due to a misinterpretation of the available one, and here we would enter the field of biases cognitive when deciding. It is not uncommon to ignore data that does not fit our predefined ideas, or to underestimate them. Or overestimate fairly flimsy evidence.
In reality, apart from the negative consequences that the error may have, We are very concerned about the emotional cost of the terrible moment when we realize that we have made a mistake. Managing the frustration of seeing your desires, needs or aspirations unfulfilled is a process that is taught from a young age and that not everyone knows how to manage properly.
Anger against someone external or against ourselves, sadness for the loss of what we anticipated and the helplessness in which we sometimes find ourselves, is a difficult pill to swallow.
Fear of making mistakes: what to do to manage it?
In general, to achieve better exposure to error without too serious psychological consequences we must take into account some keys.
1. Accept that error is ubiquitous and daily
We make thousands of decisions a day, most decided by system 1, which saves us a lot of cumbersome work. So we will be wrong dozens or perhaps hundreds of times. The more accustomed I am to the possibility of error, the less I will suffer when it occurs.
2. Learn to value real costs
The cost of error is not always high, nor is it a tragedy. In fact, of the dozens of mistakes made daily, we are not aware of the majority as they have no consequences. Even There are errors that prevent us from other more important ones such as “positive illusions” that overestimate our capacity or ability to face some situations and that can lead us to solve them on many occasions (McKay & Dennet, 2009).
Many of the biased decisions we make are adaptive, paradoxically; For example, looking at both sides of the road, even if no cars are passing, is a behavioral bias and its cost is minimal. The famous negativity bias is evolutionary because it favors survival, although it is not always right. Biases minimize the cost of errors.
The point is that, if we perceive that a bad result is repeated, it is possible that there is our own bias that does not serve us – “distrust everyone”, “men only want sex”, etc. -. A thoughtful assessment of how we decide is important.
4. Adequate emotional management
We will get angry, rage, and possibly hyperventilate if we miss a deadline, choose a career we don’t like, or get into a relationship with a toxic person. But be careful not to “make” this unpleasant sensation last longer than is recommended. Negative emotions help us indicate where there is a problem, neither more nor less. Then our task is to identify it well and provide solutions.
5. Integrate new information.
It is about seeking adaptability in our mental schemes, incorporating new behaviors and adjusting our patterns once we have located what was interfering with our predictions. We humans frequently modify our ways of doing things, although we do not do so consciously in many cases.
We do not always seek maximum benefit, but rather the best fit. For this, we need to examine the error carefully. To avoid the influence of our own bias, we can always seek help, whether professional or “amateur”; The vision of another trusted person can be very useful.
