We all know the saying: “To err is human.” And this is true enough. When something goes wrong, it is most likely to be caused by human errors: airplane crashes (70 percent), car accidents (90 percent), and workplace accidents (90 percent). We’re all affected by certain biases① in the way we see, remember, and perceive② the world, and these biases make us tend to make certain types of errors.
Here are several ways to avoid making them.
1. Each year in the United States, some 7,000 people die from medication errors – and many of them are made because of doctors’ sloppy③ handwriting. Little things do mean a lot.
2. When you have a major decision to make, ask what can go wrong. Positive thinking blinds us to pitfalls④. So look for and even expect failure. “It’s the power of negative thinking,” said Atul Gawande, MD, of Harvard Medical School.
3. Habit is a great friend, saving us time and mental effort. But it can kill our ability to perceive novel situations. After a while, we see only what we expect to see.
4. Multitasking can cause our error rate to go up, as our attention becomes divided. It makes sense to slow down and do one thing at a time. The slower approach may actually be more effi cient in the long run.
5. Good feelings increase the tendency to combine materials in new ways and see relatedness between things. Happy people tend to be more creative and less likely to make errors.
From: http://www.rd.com
Notes
① bias n. 趋向
② perceive v. 感知
③ sloppy adj. 潦草的
④ pitfall n. 隐患，陷阱
Task：Read the passage and choose subheadings from the following A-E for the blanks 1-5.
A. Think differently.
B. Slow down.
C. Think small.
D. Think negatively.
E. Put off decisions until you’re in a better mood.
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