Your brain isn't broken, it's biased

-AND you can outsmart brain bias.

When the world feels heavy, it's easy to assume something's wrong with us. But what's really happening is our brains are doing their job - just a little too well. In the next few minutes, you'll learn why certain stories or images stick with us, how to recognize when your brain is amplifying the noise, and what you can to to step back, reset and choose what deserves your energy.

Availability Bias

When an event or image is recent, repeated, or especially vivid, it’s easier for our brain to recall. This can distort how big or likely the risk feels even if long-term data tells a different story.

Psychologists call this the availability heuristic or availability bias.

What’s Happening in Our Brains

Our brain doesn’t give equal weight to all information. It prioritizes what’s vivid, emotional, and recent over what’s factual and trend-accurate. That brain bias helps us make quick decisions but can also pull our judgment off center.

• Origin: First described by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman (1973).

• How it works: The easier something is to remember, the more likely or important it feels.

• Why it matters: Feeling isn’t the same as frequency. A vivid example can overshadow years of steady data.

This isn’t about dismissing painful events. It’s about understanding how our minds work so we can hold both truth and perspective.

Where You Might Notice It

At work: One tough meeting overshadows months of collaboration. One reorg makes a stable company feel chaotic.

In the news: Vivid, emotional, or repeated headlines stick and can make the world feel heavier than it really is.

In relationships: One difficult conversation outweighs years of reliability.

How to reflect when things feel overwhelming.

• Spot the trigger

  • Is this story recent, repeated, or especially vivid for me?

  • Am I reacting to the image’s intensity or the full set of facts?

• Check the frame

  • What data, trend, or base rate would help me right now?

  • Is this an event or a pattern?

• Widen the lens

  • What else is true alongside this story?

  • What evidence would change my mind?

• Choose the input

  • Do I need more information, more time, or a break from the feed?

    
    

Taking Charge

Awareness of availability bias doesn’t erase what’s hard but it can steady us.

When we understand that our brain prioritizes vivid, emotional, and recent information, we can pause, zoom out, and choose how we'd like to respond.

Try this: Notice one area this week where your brain might be over-weighting what’s vivid. Then share this idea with someone else at work, in conversation, or in your feed. Perspective spreads when we talk about it.