Want to Communicate Effectively at Work? Eliminate These 5 Cognitive Distortions

Occasional errors in thinking make us form an inaccurate view of reality and stick with it, thereby impacting our behaviors and actions

Credit: Author

In part 1 on cognitive distortions, I wrote about the five cognitive distortions that impact your decision-making by impairing your ability to think clearly.

In this article, I will cover five cognitive distortions that impact communication:

1. Heaven’s reward fallacy
2. Curse of knowledge
3. Fundamental attribution error
4. Fallacy of change
5. Bikeshedding

Let’s get started.

Heaven’s Reward Fallacy

We all expect to be praised for our hard work and effort. We all want to be appreciated, noticed, and rewarded. But a large part of the work we do often goes unnoticed. Always doing good to others does not always come around. Working hard, sacrificing, and exhausting ourselves with endless work does not make success more likely.

Seeking external rewards and external approval only leads to disappointment with feelings of anger, frustration, and resentment because reality often does not align with our expectations.

Those under the influence of heaven’s reward fallacy have a hard time saying no. They think that if they keep doing good to others, others will do good to them, or if they are always helpful, others will also help them out when they need it.

But the world isn’t fair. Constantly giving to others does not guarantee a return.

Example of Heaven’s reward fallacy cognitive distortion

Let’s say you’re leading a big project. You consider this project as your chance to show your skills, prove your worth and get to the next step on the career ladder. So, you work extra hard, compromising on your family time, working even weekends and late nights to ensure nothing gets in the way of its success. But just a few weeks before the final delivery, the company decides to pull the plug on…