Premature cognitive commitment

It is important to realize, however, that people often hold on stubbornly to a preconceived notion about someone or something. As illustrated in Figure 5.13, this bias is often caused by prior experience, and it can dramatically affect perception. Perhaps you know this phenomenon as prejudice, one-sidedness, history, discrimination, pigheadedness, or just plain bias. I like the label Langer (1989) uses for this kind of mindlessness—premature cognitive commitment. 

I like the term "premature cognitive commitment" because it makes me mindful of the various ingredients of inflexible prejudice. First, it is premature, meaning it is accomplished before adequate diagnosis, analysis, and consideration. Second, it is cognitive, meaning it is a mental process that influences our perceptions, our attitudes, and our behaviors. Finally, it is a commitment. It is not just a fleeting notion or temporary opinion. 

Premature cognitive commitment is the root cause of much, if not most, interpersonal conflict. And it is a barrier we must overcome to develop the interdependent teamwork needed for a Total Safety Culture. Being mindful of premature cognitive commitment in ourselves and others will not stop this bias, but it is a start. 

Every conversation you have with someone is biased by prejudice or prejudgment filters— in yourself and within the other person. You cannot get around it. From personal experience, people develop opinions and attitudes and these, in turn, influence subsequent experience. With regard to interpersonal conversation, we have subjective prejudgment filters that influence what words we hear, how we interpret those words, and what we say in response to those words. In Chapter 5,1 referred to this bias as premature cognitive commitment (Langer, 1989). Every conversation influences how we process and interpret the next conversation. 

The general label we give people influences how we view them, judge them, and react to their communication with us. This is the kind of destructive bias or premature cognitive commitment (Chapter 5) that leads to prejudice, interpersonal conflict, and sometimes even hate crimes. 

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