Cognitive inertia

Cognitive inertia

Cognitive inertia refers the tendency for beliefs or sets of beliefs to endure once formed. In particular, cognitive inertia describes the human inclination to rely on familiar assumptions and exhibit a reluctance and/or inability to revise those assumptions, even when the evidence supporting them no longer exists or when other evidence would question their accuracy. The term is employed in the managerial and organizational sciences to describe the commonly observed phenomenon whereby managers fail to update and revise their understanding of a situation when that situation changes, a phenomenon that acts as a psychological barrier to organizational change.[1][2][3] The notion of cognitive inertia is related to similar ideas in the fields of social psychology and behavioral decision theory, including cognitive dissonance, belief perseverance, confirmation bias, and escalation of commitment.

One example of cognitive inertia concerns managers at the Polaroid corporation, whose belief that the company could not make money on hardware but only on consumables led them to neglect the growth in digital imaging technologies; because the trend was denied by the prevailing "mental model" of the business, the corporation failed to adapt effectively to market changes.[4]

Not all instances of cognitive inertia result in negative outcomes. Cognitive inertia is a key component of love, trust, and friendship. For instance, if evidence showed that a friend was dishonest, the cognitive inertia of the friendship would demand much more evidence to form an opinion than that required to form an opinion of a stranger. In this fashion, cognitive inertia provides an additional level of trust in a relationship.

References

  1. ^ Huff J.O., Huff A.S., Thomas H. (1992). "Strategic Renewal and the Interaction of Cumulative Stress and Inertia". Strategic Management Journal 13: 55–75. doi:10.1002/smj.4250131006. 
  2. ^ Hodgkinson G.P. (1997). "Cognitive inertia in a turbulent market: The case of UK residential estate agents". Journal of Management Studies 34 (6): 921–945. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00078. 
  3. ^ Reger R.K., Palmer T.B. (1996). "Managerial categorization of competitors: Using old maps to navigate new environments". Organization Science 7 (1): 22–39. doi:10.1287/orsc.7.1.22. 
  4. ^ Tripsas M., Gavetti G. (2000). "Capabilities, cognition, and inertia: Evidence from digital imaging". Strategic Management Journal 21 (10–11): 1147–61. doi:10.1002/1097-0266(200010/11)21:10/11<1147::AID-SMJ128>3.0.CO;2-R. 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cognitive dissonance — The Fox and the Grapes by Aesop. When the fox fails to reach the grapes, he decides he does not want them after all. This is an example of adaptive preference formation, which serves to reduce cognitive dissonance.[1] …   Wikipedia

  • Cognitive dysfunction — (or brain fog) is defined as unusually poor mental function, associated with confusion, forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating.[1][2] A number of medical or psychiatric conditions and treatments can cause such symptoms, including heavy metal… …   Wikipedia

  • Inertia — In common usage, however, people may also use the term inertia to refer to an object s amount of resistance to change in velocity (which is quantified by its mass), and sometimes its momentum, depending on context (e.g. this object has a lot of… …   Wikipedia

  • Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development — For more information, see Piaget s theory of cognitive development, Cognitive development and Intelligence. Psychology …   Wikipedia

  • Emotional inertia — is a term used to describe the tendency of a person in a given emotional state to stay in motion in order to avoid dealing with the emotional issue until an outside force is experienced.Emotional inertia is an extension of the concept of… …   Wikipedia

  • Confirmation bias — (also called confirmatory bias or myside bias) is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.[Note 1][1] As a result, people gather evidence and recall …   Wikipedia

  • Corporate foresight — is an ability that includes any structural or cultural element that enables the company to detect discontinuous change early, interpret the consequences for the company, and formulate effective responses to ensure the long term survival and… …   Wikipedia

  • Science in medieval Islam — In the history of science, Islamic science refers to the science developed under the Islamic civilization between the 8th and 16th centuries, during what is known as the Islamic Golden Age. [cite journal|first=A. I.|last=Sabra|authorlink=A. I.… …   Wikipedia

  • emotion — emotionable, adj. emotionless, adj. /i moh sheuhn/, n. 1. an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness. 2. any of the… …   Universalium

  • Sleep — Waking up redirects here. For other uses, see Waking Up (disambiguation). This article is about sleep in general; for specifically non human sleep see Sleep (non human); for other uses, see Sleep (disambiguation). Sleeping child Sleep is a… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”