How to Mitigate the Impact of the Behavioural Minefield

Abstract

In the previous chapter, we saw that subjectivity tends to be stronger than objectivity, which in turn impacted the efficacy of decision-making. The higher the level of uncertainty the higher the level individuals and groups rely on their biases and use of heuristics to make decisions. Here we examine a variety of approaches to counteract biases as well as confronting the challenges of digital disinformation, filter bubbles, and social media influenced echo chambers. Mitigation approaches such as improving media literacy and fact-checking are reviewed to challenge the worst of that behaviour governed by these traits and to mitigate their impact. Reference is made as to how Finland has introduced methods to mitigate the worst influence of targeted disinformation as well as a selection of ideas to reduce individual and group-based cognitive dissonance.

We cannot fully grasp the nature and the implications of what happened in the concentration camps if we shy away from facing the destructive tendencies of man, the aggressive aspect of our animal inheritance which in man has assumed a specifically human and peculiarly destructive form

Bruno Bettelheim—The Informed Heart.