(Easier Said than Done)

What is an Assumption? To my understanding it’s a normal behaviour in human communication to assume that someone else means something different than what they expressly say; this is known as “mind reading” or “assuming intent.” This is mostly result of a number of psychological, social, and cultural elements that affect our perceptions of and reactions to the comments made by others.

The most commonly thought of reasons for assumptions are the way we communicate:

1. Tone , Volume, Speed of Speech
2. Eye-contact
3. Use of Pauses & silence
4. Facial Expressiveness
5. Formality or Directness
6. High V/S low context communication
7. Emotional expressiveness & self disclosures

But this can only be understood while we are face to face or on a video call. Then why are assumptions being made in chats and texts these days ? the answer looks simple but it isn’t as Individuals are prone to cognitive biases that influence how they interpret information.

How is cognitive bias created? As i researched and found few articles on this , to my interpretation , cognitive biases are systemic mistakes in thinking that happen when people evaluate and process information, which affects their conclusions and judgements. Indeed, I can say that our emotions and cognitive biases are intertwined. Our emotions have a deep-rooted effect on our perception, judgement, and decision-making, which can lead to cognitive biases. Fluctuation in our moods can also affect the systemic errors in our thinking and it results in biased decisions and judgements.

So, now the next question that comes is, if we know that assumptions are due to our own cognitive biases then why do we do it? The intricacy of cognitive biases, is that it is imbedded in our automatic character of our mental processes, and the innate difficulties with self-awareness , self-control are some of the interrelated causes of this conundrum. So, it works like, when someone says or expresses something our mind has pre-processed information stored in our memories and we just do cut-copy-paste.

So what should we do? It takes awareness, practice, and strategic approaches to communication and decision-making to avoid assumptions, especially those that are influenced by cognitive biases, emotions & mood swings.

So, here I would like to conclude stating my viewpoint that , even if we assume and we do things on the basis of assumptions, the only thing that can keep us open to awareness and communication is keep our pride & ego aside. As these emotional aspects are most dangerous when we assume.