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How to Overcome Dysfunctional Attitudes

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28.06.2026

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Attitudes are sets of feelings, beliefs, and behavior impulses, usually unarticulated.

Dysfunctional attitudes make people act against their long-term best interests.

To overcome dysfunctional attitudes, one must unpack the autopilot judgments underlying them.

Attitudes are sets of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral impulses, usually outside of awareness. For example, people with an attitude of entitlement rarely articulate it but will likely justify their behavior in ways that imply it.

Knowing someone's basic attitudes helps us predict their behavior. For instance, an attitude of entitlement predicts rude treatment of others.

Embedded in all attitudes—including those we do articulate—are:

Autopilot coping habits

Biased interpretations

When Attitudes Become Dysfunctional

“We think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it’s the other way around. We believe in the reasons because we’ve already made the decision.” —Daniel Kahneman

“We think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it’s the other way around. We believe in the reasons because we’ve already made the decision.” —Daniel Kahneman

Dysfunctional attitudes make us act against our long-term best interests. While all attitudes contain some flaw of reasoning or sin of........

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