In the "Psychology of Human Misjudgment," Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long-time business partner, assembled a list of 25 psychology-based tendencies that, while often useful, often mislead.

Number 7 - Kantian Fairness Tendency.  Kant was famous for his "categorical imperative," a "golden rule" that requires humans to follow those behavior patterns that, if followed by all others, would make the human system work best for everybody.  Basically, humans expect a lot of fairness.  Witness the way most people let other drivers cross in front of them, largely because that is the courtesy they would like when roles are reversed.  Witness the way people almost innately line up in a first-come, first-served system when uncertain about what else to do.  Conversely, witness the reactive hostility that can arise when the "fairness" that is expected is not provided. 

Number 8 - Envy/Jealousy Tendency.  I’m going to edit Munger here slightly because business generally involves envy (indeed, Warren Buffett has said that "it is not greed that drives the world, but envy") and not jealousy.  Envy involves an "envier" and a "rival" for something considered by the envier to be good.  The envier’s real concern is the rival.  Jealousy involves three parties: the subject, the rival, and the beloved.  The subject’s real concern is the beloved. The distinction from jealously aside, the power of the envy in business is extreme, and yet it is considered almost taboo to discuss as a tendency.  Munger believes the reason is that it is essentially an allegation of mental unfitness, and people are extremely reluctant to go there.  He suggests it is time to recognize, and discuss, it as the force that it is.  

Number 9 - Reciprocation Tendency.  Humans have an automatic tendency to reciprocate both favors and disfavors.  In business, on the favor side, obviously it behooves us to understand the reciprocal power of dispensing favors strategically.  It is the reason, for example, investment banks shower gifts - e.g., special events, research - on potential clients.  Conversely, it is the reason many organizations prohibit the acceptance of any favors from vendors.  Sam Walton wouldn’t allow his buyers to accept so much as a hot dog from a vendor.  On the disfavor side, Munger points out that the "turn-the-other-cheek" behavior, if the good idea it seems, will require "a lot of heavy lifting because...genes won’t be of much help."  

Munger cites an interesting psychological experiment conducted by a fellow named Cialdini.  He asked his "compliance practitioners" to wander around a college campus and ask for volunteers to supervise a bunch of juvenile delinquents on an afternoon trip to a zoo.  One out of six accepted, which is amazing itself.  His practitioners then asked a separate group of people if they would devote a big chunk of time every week for two years to supervising juvenile delinquents.  They received a 100% rejection rate.  But...when the respondents were then asked if they would supervise a bunch of juvenile delinquents on an afternoon trip to a zoo, three out of six said they would.  The practitioners made a small concession - essentially, allowing the respondents to say no to an outrageous request - and the respondents irrationally agreed to the first request.  Another example: the Attorney General under Nixon who allowed his subordinate to execute the Watergate burglary after rejecting his wild plan for advancing Republican interests through some combo of whores and big yac

In the "Psychology of Human Misjudgment," Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long-time business partner, assembled a list of 25 psychology-based tendencies that, while often useful, often mislead.

Number 4 - Doubt-AvoidanceTendency.  The human brain is programmed with a tendency to quickly remove doubt by reaching some decision.  Indeed, it is a critical survival instinct and almost always triggered by puzzlement and stress.  An unthreatened human, thinking of nothing in particular, is not being prompted to remove doubt through rushing to some decision.  Ah, even Charlie Munger recognizes the virtue of presence. 

Number 5 - Inconsistency-AvoidanceTendency.  "The brain of man conserves programming space by being reluctant to change."  Thus, habits die hard, as do previous conclusions, loyalties, reputational identity, commitments, accepted role in civilization, among others.  While often useful to individuals and society as a whole, this tendency gets in the way of creativity, innovation, and the flexibility required for success in our high velocity, highly dynamic modern world.  And "it is easy to see that a quickly reached conclusion, triggered by Doubt-Avoidance Tendency [Number 4], when combined with a tendency to resist any change in that conclusion, will naturally cause a lot of errors in cognition for modern man."  

Number 6 - Curiosity Tendency.  Although generally a very useful tendency, and one that helps people to prevent or reduce negative consequences arising from the other psychological tendencies, curiosity can be overdone and interfere with the accomplishment of practical tasks. 

From Poor Charlie’s Almanack (2005), a compilation of the wit and wisdom of Charles T. Munger.