Thread by @thomasdolphin

I've tweeted about this before but the protests this week have led me to think that there is hope that the normalcy bias that paralyses our nation can be overcome.

medium.com/@thomasdolphin…

How is normalcy bias stopping us from acting? (short thread - or read the article!)

Normalcy bias is a cognitive flaw we all have that sometimes prevents us responding appropriately to grave threats. Because things have always worked out okay before when the alarms have gone off, we discount the risks and genuinely believe that things will be fine this time too.

No Deal Brexit, and now the breaking of major constitutional conventions by Johnson to get his way, are grave threats, but generally the country is behaving as though both these things will be fine.

They will not. This is not normal, and the situation requires action.

People are going about their normal lives. There may be a degree of learned helplessness about it for some people, but the majority haven’t even been able to recognise that action is needed yet. But it's not because they're stupid, incurious, or ovine. It's the normalcy bias.

Normalcy bias is literally preventing people from being able to act. Whether Johnson/Cummings know that and are relying on it, or just benefiting from it, people are letting them carry on with what they're doing, because eventually things have always worked out okay before.

The major way to overcome normalcy bias (like most cognitive biases) is to be aware of it. Examine your assumptions. Is it possible that now is really the time you were warned about? Will you look back on now and wish you had acted?
Join the protests. #StopTheCoup