much of what we sense we never notice. this most clearly leads to

Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want

by Nicholas Epley

Knopf, Borzoi Books (2014)

Summarized past Bryan Turner

Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Recall, Believe, Feel, and Want is a book about our "sixth sense", or mindreading, only there's zippo supernatural about it. Epley is an experimental social psychologist, and this is a book about his research into how we understand the intentions, motives, thoughts, beliefs, feelings and wants of ourselves and others, our mistakes in doing so, and what we can do to correct for these predictable errors.

Why is this important? Because our 6th sense underpins our power to cooperate.  In the business organisation world, cooperation is foundational for performance and profit.  Anyone whose chore rests, even in part, on successful interactions with others (cooperation) volition do good from this book.

The book is carve up into four parts. Part one is virtually how nosotros misread minds.  Specifically, that's 1) how nosotros empathise less about our own and others' minds than we'd look and ii) what we can and can't know about our own minds.  Part 2 is about how nosotros read minds when we shouldn't, and we don't read minds when we should.  Part iii is about mistakes we make (egocentrism, stereotyping and the correspondence bias) in understanding the minds of others.  Part four is nearly what nosotros tin can do to be meliorate mindreaders (how we can be ameliorate at understanding people's motivations, intentions, thoughts, behavior, feelings and wants).

Annotated table of contents:

• Preface: Overview of the book.
• Part ane: How nosotros misread minds.
  • Chapter 1: We understand less nearly the minds of others, and our own minds, than we'd expect.
  • Affiliate 2: What we can and cannot know nearly our own minds.
• Function 2: Using our sixth sense when we shouldn't and not using it when we should.
  • Chapter 3: How we fail to read minds when we can and should, how information technology leads to psychological distance and the implications for cooperation.
  • Affiliate 4: How nosotros read minds when we shouldn't, the mistakes that creates and the implications for cooperation.
• Part 3: Mistakes nosotros predictably brand in using our sixth sense.
  • Chapter 5: Egocentrism makes it hard for us to accurately read minds simply in that location are things you can practice nigh it.
  • Affiliate 6: We over rely on stereotypes and make predictable errors in mindreading. Once again, in that location are things you can do about it.
  • Chapter vii: Observed behavior does non equal someone's intentions. The correspondence bias and its implications.
• Part four: How to do better.
  • Affiliate 8: How to correct for, and avoid, all these anticipated mistakes you lot make in mindreading.

CHAPTER BY Affiliate SUMMARY

Affiliate 1: AN OVERCONFIDENT SENSE

Did you know seeing someone for only 1/20 of a second is enough for yous to course impressions about them that bias your assessment of them and how y'all interact with them?  The problem is that, in many cases, those impressions are not authentic.

"We think we sympathize the minds of others, and even our own heed, amend than nosotros actually do." We're overconfident in our mindreading abilities and this makes us wrong a lot of the time for predictable reasons.  Correspondingly, when dealing with colleagues, friends and fifty-fifty loved ones, we know a lot less virtually their minds than we think we do.

Fun fact: on average, mindreading betwixt strangers was right near 20% of the time whereas information technology was correct effectually 35% of the time between close friends and loved ones.  In other words, we're wrong nearly the minds of strangers four out of five times and we're wrong most the minds of loved ones two out of three times.  With that, you can see why one of the pieces of advice on our decision making folio is to exist more humble.

Some skillful quotes from the chapter are:

• "The central challenge for your sixth sense is that others' inner thoughts are revealed just through the façade of their faces, bodies, and language."
• "People's ability to spot deception was simply a few percentage points better than a random money flip: people were 54 pct accurate overall, when random guessing would make you accurate fifty% of the fourth dimension."
• "The trouble is that the confidence we have in this sense far outstrips our bodily ability, and the conviction we have in our judgment rarely gives united states of america a good sense of how accurate we actually are."
• "The primary goal of this book is to reduce your illusion of insight into the minds of others, both past trying to improve your understanding and past inducing a greater sense of humility well-nigh what y'all know – and what you don't know – nigh others."

How to apply this to ethical systems design:

• Don't presume y'all know why someone did something, or what motivates them – call back that y'all're likely to be wrong if you lot guess.  Ask them (more on this in chapter viii).  This is particularly important for managers and people who design systems that are supposed to marshal individual behavior with organizational goals.

CHAPTER ii: WHAT YOU CAN AND CANNOT KNOW Nigh YOUR Own Listen

"The only difference in the way we brand sense of our own minds versus other people'south minds is that nosotros know we're guessing about the actual minds of others.  The sense of privileged access y'all have to the actual workings of your own mind – to the causes and processes that guide your thoughts and behavior – appears to be an illusion."

You know why y'all think and feel something correct? Well, as it turns out, you don't really.  We can't see all the inner workings of our own mind and consequently when nosotros endeavor to decipher why we feel a particular manner we're actually just guessing – the aforementioned as when we effort to read the minds of others.  This affiliate is filled with witty anecdotes and examples that, if you read the book, will illustrate just what is meant by this.

Most people think this doesn't apply to them (do you lot?) until they see the examples first paw (the planning fallacy bet, the elephant drawing, and George Bush-league examples are good for this) but the basic points are sound: introspection is express, you estimate when reading your own, and others', minds and then you come upwardly with rationalizations after the fact.

Our psychological heroes in this chapter are construction (or the limits of introspection), associative networks, the planning fallacy and naïve realism.

Some practiced quotes from this chapter are:

• "You are consciously enlightened of your brain's finished products- witting attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and feelings, – just are unaware of the processes your brain went through to construct those final products, and you are therefore unable to recognize its mistakes."
• "Yous are missing the construction that happens inside your own encephalon: the triggers and intervening neural processes that make you do what you practice and call up what you lot think.  We don't understand ourselves perfectly well because nosotros take access to just part of what's going on inside our heads."
• "What's surprising is how easily introspection makes united states feel like we know what'south going on in our own heads, fifty-fifty when nosotros don't. We simply have piddling awareness that we're spinning a story rather than reporting the facts."

How to apply this to ethical systems design:

• Associative networks: Pay attention to the environment and contextual triggers as nosotros discuss on our contextual influences page, which incidentally, is managed by Professor Epley himself.

• Planning fallacy: yous're probably going to call up that a particular projection takes less time than it volition.  Brand certain you allow sufficient time for a job; a big cause of unethical behavior is time force per unit area.
• Pay attention to naïve realism.  "I'm correct and y'all're biased."  Y'all won't change your mind, or think rationally, weighing the best options and giving various alternatives sufficient attention, when emotionally angry (in the heat of the moment), instead you'll brand a gut choice based on automated processes and justify it.  What to do to make better decisions?  Dull down. Attain a little emotional distance and utilize that controlled processing that dismantles many of our automatic biases.  Enquire yourself "tin I believe it?" and so "must I believe it?" which leads to very different frames of assay to unearth your real preferences and do a better job on your decision making.

CHAPTER 3: HOW Nosotros DEHUMANIZE

"You are describing psychological altitude when you lot say that you feel 'afar' from your spouse, 'out of touch' with your kids' lives, 'worlds apart' from a neighbor's politics, or 'separated' from your employees."  This is failing to appoint your sixth sense in action.

If y'all think it's important to understand what motivates your employees, students or customers, and then understanding how and when we appoint, and fail to engage, our mindreading ability is of import. That's what this, and the side by side, chapters are about.

Studies evidence that managers remember that they're motivated intrinsically but that they think their employees are motivated extrinsically.  Equally information technology turns out, this is wrong, and a big error for trying to understand how to motivate your people.

If you don't understand people's incentives then it's difficult to create incentive systems that are going to work well.  Our mindreading abilities are remarkable simply at that place are predictable reasons why you don't engage them when you should. Disengagement comes from altitude. Not surprisingly then, learning when to engage your sixth sense can help you gain insights you'd otherwise miss.

Some good quotes from the chapter are:

• "Every business leader is charged with getting things done through people. This requires understanding what really motivates people in their jobs. This is an obvious mind-reading problem: What do my employees really desire?"
• "Your 6th sense simply works when you engage it."

• "Like closing your eyes and then last that zero exists, failing to engage your ability to reason about the mind of some other person not only leads to indifference about others, information technology tin can also lead to the sense that other are relatively mindless."

How to apply this to upstanding systems blueprint:

• If you find yourself thinking of others equally extrinsically motivated, or relatively mindless, this could be a good reminder that you may have some psychological distance to bridge.
• Don't brand assumptions near what motivates your employees, customers or colleagues when you tin know. Get perspective by request them, equally discussed more fully in chapter eight.

CHAPTER iv: HOW Nosotros ANTHROPOMORPHIZE

Our brain'south default settings for engaging with the mind of another are not optimally calibrated.  Nosotros make mistakes with seeing minds where none exist (this chapter) and we make mistakes past non engaging our 6th sense when nosotros should (the previous chapter).  Agreement what triggers us to anthropomorphize can help usa run across when we're engaging our mindreading power when information technology's non advantageous to practise so.  The three triggers for engaging our sixth sense when nosotros shouldn't are 1) it seems similar it has a mind ii) its beliefs tin be explained by having a listen and iii) it reminds me of myself and therefore has a listen.

Some good quotes from this chapter are:

• "If y'all and I can be tricked into seeing a mind where no mind actually exists, then the actually interesting question is not whether some things really have minds or not but, rather, what are the tricks? These tricks matter because they assist explain why people seem so completely inconsistent in their mind reading from one moment to the adjacent."
• "Making people feel alone in experiments also at to the lowest degree momentarily increased their belief in God."
• "Recognizing the mind of another human being beingness involves the same psychological processes equally recognizing a listen in other animals, a god, or even a gadget.  It is a reflection of our brain's greatest power rather than a sign of stupidity."

Chapter 5: THE Trouble OF GETTING OVER YOURSELF

"People using ambiguous mediums think they are communicating clearly because they know what they mean to say, receivers are unable to get this significant accurately only are certain that they have interpreted the message accurately, and both are amazed that the other side can be so stupid."

When trying to sympathise another's mind, we start by thinking about how we feel nigh a situation which leads to more predictable mistakes in how we read minds.  The two main classes of mistakes are the "neck problem" – where you and the other person pay attention to different things; think necks looking in dissimilar directions – and the "lens trouble" – where your particular biases influence how you filter information; call back lenses through which you run into the world.  The neck problem is that you and someone else may be paying attending to dissimilar things, thus preventing you from finer communicating. The lens trouble is that even if y'all are paying attention to the aforementioned matter, you and someone else volition likely exist evaluating that same thing differently.  You can correct for the cervix problem – past thinking nigh, or asking the other person, what they're paying attending to relating to a given scenario – but information technology's harder to right for the lens problem.

Some good quotes from this chapter are:

• "You cannot simply attempt harder to view the world through the eyes of another and hope to do and then more accurately, because the lens that biases your perceptions is often invisible to you."
• "You don't overcome the lens problem past trying harder to imagine another person's perspective.  You overcome it past actually being in that perspective, or hearing direct from some who has been in information technology."
• "One consequence of beingness at the center of your ain universe is that information technology'southward easy to overestimate your importance in it, both for improve and for worse."

How to utilise this to upstanding systems blueprint:

• The cervix problem: when evaluating an issue, recall about what others are paying attending to and what criteria they could exist using.  Apply that to make sure you're both paying attention to the same things.
• After correcting for the neck problem and ensuring y'all're paying attending to the aforementioned things, go someone else'south perspective by really putting yourself in their situation or asking them directly.  Remember that perspective taking doesn't work when trying to bargain with the lens problem so for real insight you lot'll demand to experience the situation yourself or inquire someone who is in it.

CHAPTER 6: THE USES AND ABUSES OF STEREOTYPES

Frequently the stereotypes we have nearly groups of people take some accurateness to them merely we almost inevitably overestimate how much insight we actually go from the stereotypes.  In a lot of cases, while in that location might be some insight, the differences between groups are marginal and nosotros almost ever exaggerate them.  This makes sense based on how nosotros process information; we emphasize our differences to create identity and experiences – non our similarities – and our brains exercise their best to detect causal explanations even when none exist.

Importantly, we only rely on our stereotypes when we don't take other good evidence to go on – after talking with someone for ten minutes our initial judgment based on stereotyping has pretty much vanished.  Some stereotypes can be a good initial starting point in the absence of other information but remember nosotros vastly overestimate the magnitude of the patterns we notice and the insights you can gain from them need to be only one office of a number of pieces of evidence.

Some practiced quotes from this chapter are:

• "We have too much insight from too little data from the stereotypes nosotros rely upon. Relying on data we've 'seen, imagined, or heard' is non tremendously accurate."
• "People primed with positive stereotypes about the groups they are in do better, while people primed to call up the group they are part of has a negative stereotype do worse on tests."
• "In full general, stereotypes are more accurate when you've had direct feel with a group (such equally one yous belong to), know a lot about the group in question (because information technology's in the bulk), and are asked well-nigh conspicuously visible facts (such equally nearly visible beliefs rather than virtually invisible mental states, like attitudes, beliefs, or intentions)."

How to utilise this to ethical systems design:

• When you find yourself stereotyping recall that the insights you lot'll get from stereotyping are small, that they don't provide causal explanations and they only exist until you become to know someone or their work.  If you're relying on stereotypes, that could be a sign that you need to learn more than about the person y'all're stereotyping as what they do is by and large more accurate than what you retrieve well-nigh their group.

Affiliate vii: HOW ACTIONS CAN MISLEAD

"Only a fool would infer that a person who slips on an icy sidewalk wanted to autumn, only the contextual forces that contribute to our successes and stumbles are routinely less obvious than ice on a sidewalk."

In a nutshell, the above quote is what this chapter is well-nigh.  As users of this site volition surely recognize, context matters – sometimes more than people's personality or values – and it's rarely as simple as observed behavior = people's intentions.

Similar many biases though, the correspondence bias – where we assume that observed behavior is a directly effect of people'south intentions – is our default setting. Nosotros therefore naturally and mistakenly assume that we know much more about people than we really do.  This tin can result in misevaluating situations, addressing the wrong questions and thereby trying to solve the wrong problems.

Some proficient quotes from this chapter are:

• "The problem is that life is viewed routinely through the zoom lens, narrowly focused on persons rather than on the broader contexts that influence a person'southward actions."
• "Like many habits, the tendency to make inferences about a person'due south state of mind simply from their observed actions can be weakened intentionally; y'all can learn to overcome it."
• "Much more than effective for irresolute beliefs is targeting the broader context rather than private minds, making it easier for people to exercise the things they already want to do."
• "Man beings, similar whatever animal, are more likely to do things that are easy rather than hard. They don't have some deep desire to litter; they're simply more probable to practice whatever is going on effectually them."

How to employ this to ethical systems design:

• Before you judge a item behavior, whether good or bad, take a stride dorsum and ask yourself how the environment might have contributed.  Like someone slipping on an icy sidewalk and inferring that the person wanted to slip, remember that the correlation between observed behavior and people's intentions in many environments is depression.
• Brand certain you consider the surroundings when problem solving.  Is the intervention yous're trying to promote actually the right intervention to address the outcome or is at that place something from the surroundings you're missing?
• Additionally, if it is the right intervention, is it actually a people problem or are you but trying to go against human nature?  For the well-nigh function, people desire to do the "right" matter, only we generally do the like shooting fish in a barrel thing.  Are y'all making the "right" affair, the easy affair? And if not, how can you?

Affiliate eight: HOW, AND HOW NOT, TO BE A Improve MIND READER

Part one talked about how we can and cannot know well-nigh minds. Part ii talked about how we make mistakes by mindreading when we shouldn't and not mindreading when we should. Part iii talked about mistakes we make when mindreading. Part iv, this chapter, talks most what to do and what not to practice almost information technology.

What doesn't work for improving mindreading? Learning to read trunk language and improving perspective taking. Some people can get some gains on the margins from training in these areas but many of the improvements are negligible, even if they are overstated in the popular media.

Essentially, if you really desire to understand what someone is thinking yous're going to have to enquire them.  What nosotros know about our own minds is limited though then don't inquire them why they think something, inquire them what they think. So, because we so oftentimes misunderstand what's said (considering of the lens problem) reiterate what they said to you back to them to make sure y'all sympathise what they're saying.

Some good quotes from this chapter are:

• Talking about reading emotions and thoughts: "Never have nosotros plant any bear witness that perspective taking – putting yourself in another person's shoes and imagining the world through his or her eyes – increased accuracy in these judgments. In fact, in both cases perspective taking consistently decreased accuracy."
• "The relatively deadening work of getting a person'southward perspective is the way you understand them accurately, and the style you solve their problems most finer."
• "Others' minds will never exist an open book. The secret to understanding each other better seems to come not through an increased ability to read torso linguistic communication or improved perspective taking but, rather, through the hard relational piece of work of putting people in position where they can tell you their minds openly and honestly. Companies truly understand their customers better when they become their perspective straight through conversation, survey, or face-to-face interaction, not when executives guess about them in the boardroom. Managers know what their employees recollect when they are open up to the answers and employees experience safe from retaliation, non when managers use their intuition."

How to apply this to upstanding systems design:

• Don't have perspective. Get it.  When doing so, don't ask nearly why people think a certain way (remember the pollster illustration) ask what they call up.  And so reiterate what they've said to make sure y'all've understood what they retrieve.
• Many of the problems Mindwise highlights tin can be attenuated by switching from automatic to controlled processing.  In other words, apply the "rider" to put the brakes on the "elephant" to check a number of the cognitive biases discussed in the book.

The primary psychological cast of characters from this book are:

• Construction (or the limits of introspection)
• Anthropomorphism
• Dehumanization and psychological disengagement
• Associative networks
• Egoistic biases
• Stereotyping (stereotype threat and priming)
• Neck trouble
• Lens problem
• Planning fallacy
• Curse of knowledge
• Automatic and controlled processing
• Naïve realism
• Bystander outcome
• Should and want selves
• Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations
• Social intuitionism
• Parochial altruism
• Spotlight effect

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Source: https://www.ethicalsystems.org/mindwise-how-we-understand-what-others-think-believe-feel-and-want/