The Benefit of (the) Doubt

Is doubt good or bad for decision making? Is doubt healthy or damaging?

We tend to treat doubt like a warning sign: proof that we’re not ready, not capable, or headed in the wrong direction. Self-doubt is paralyzing and doubt in others is a weakness. But what if doubt of all kinds was actually a cognitive reflex working in our favor.

In this episode of Hold That Thought we explore the benefit of doubt. Doubt can make us better leaders, learners and decision makers. Doubt can be a means to question the harmful storylines in our heads. Doubt can be sharpened as a tool for self-understanding, rather than rejected as a symptom of confusion. Doubt is a critical element of intellectual humility and mental flexibility. 

What is the difference between healthy and unhealthy doubt?

• Healthy doubt pauses automatic belief  to ask better questions, challenge the status quo and live in intellectual humility.

• Healthy doubt gives us space from our minds’ unreliable narrators

• Unhealthy self-doubt (especially fear-based) goes straight to shutdown  

• Unhealthy doubt breeds mistrust 

In this episode we unpack both healthy and unhealthy doubt and we  figure out how to listen and learn from our doubt without letting it control us.  

Topics: Doubt, decision making, psychology, neurobiology, self-understanding, leadership skills, leadership styles, intellectual humility, cognitive flexibility

Resources:
Benefit of the doubt: a new view of the role of the prefrontal cortex in executive functioning and decision making
Neural Correlates of Doubt in Decision Making
Doubt is a Cognitive Reflect, Not a Sign
Selections from Keats’s Letters
The Decision Lab: Daniel Khaneman
The Power of Doubt
You Can’t Not Believe Everything You Read
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Khaneman