India, July 19 -- On a humid evening in 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was approaching Miami when a tiny lightbulb that signals the landing gear is securely locked into place failed to illuminate on the cockpit dashboard. Fixated on this indicator, the entire three-man flight crew failed to notice that the autopilot had been accidentally turned off. The landing gear was perfectly fine. The crew flew a fully functional airplane into the ground, killing 101 people.

ANCHORING BIAS

We see versions of this in hospital wards, at crime scenes, in corporate boardrooms, offices, and at home.

We suffer from a fundamental, hardwired psychological glitch known as "anchoring bias." This is our stubborn tendency to anchor onto the initial inform...