The essay is informative and tries to discuss about the serious mistakes that a human commit in different situations. Jeff wise has framed this essay for every individual who wants remain safe and secure. The author addresses every human being to remain conscious and ready for deadly incidents in life. The essay emphasises on a psychological phenomenon of a human mind (Wise 2012). There are instances in which humans commit serious mistakes to dwindle a normal situation into something worse (Wise 2012). The author of the report also cites few examples like of a pilot who crashes his plane which was flying normally and a Hiker who leaves his trek in the middle of the trail. The report tries to communicate the fact that committing significant mistakes or cognitive errors would end up in a drastically dangerous situation. The study also mentions five examples or situations according to theory. They are Redlining, The Domino effect, Situation Blindness, Double or Nothing and Bending the Map. The thesis explains each of the deadly mind traps in the rest of the study (Wise 2012).
The author uses an example of a mountain climber who gets trapped in a snow storm due to the lack of safety measures. The thesis also mentions a tragedy with a farmer and others to describe the Domino Effect. The Domino Effect is described as a tragedy in which one follows the other (Halloy 2015). Through the example, the author tries to explain how the human brain acts irrationally at times. In the example of the situational blindness, the essay states that how humans are becoming more dependent on the electronic devices than their own senses. John Roads and his wife drove into deep snow due to the misinformation by the GPS, however they could have observed the real situation from the surroundings. In the fourth example, the essay cites an example of a person who holds onto a balloon despite the fact that it was rising high. The logical mind of the person didn’t work at that moment. The fifth example is of a few skiers who did not refer to their maps and got struck in a problematic situation. The key point of the essay is to describe the entire theory through these examples. The author has quoted authentic authors and example and hence the thesis is very much believable and can be agreed with.
References:
Halloy, A., 2015. Pierre Smith’s mind traps: The origin and ramifications of a theory of ritual efficacy. Anthropological Theory, 15(3), pp.358-374.
Wise, J., 2012. Deadly Mind Traps. Psychology Today, p.80.
