Sometimes myths aren’t so bad. Consider the widespread belief that mint-flavored toothpaste makes your teeth cleaner. (I am a mint-believer.)

However, myths about effective decision-making can be detrimental. They can get in the way of actually creating solutions and innovations that are resilient and effective.

In my research on how people process information and make decisions, I found that there are several pervasive myths that inform how people go about problem-solving. Below are three of the most common ones. And, because it seemed cruel not to include the research truths, I’ve also shared how we can better understand problems, solutions, and decision-making, in general.

Myth #1: Effective problem-solving requires a clearly defined problem

Resilience Thinking Method™ Truth: Problems are not definitions, they are data points.

At the heart of this myth is the belief that a magical silver bullet problem will make the solving process easier and produce the most effective solution. In response, we spend a lot of time and energy negotiating what exactly the problem is, without realizing that all of the other problems we consider and then set aside are also real and integral to effective solution-finding.

A problem does not need to be perfectly articulated in order to start the solution-creation process because: Problems are information. They direct our attention to issues, and issues often have many interrelated problems, stresses, and challenges. An effective solution addresses a larger issue, and therefore, responds to many problems. For a solution to be truly effective and resilient, it needs to do more than put a bandaid on a singular problem.

Instead of focusing on one problem, write a list of all the related problems you’ve uncovered. Write down all of the things you’ve noticed aren’t going well. In fact, write down everything, there is no such thing as bad information. This leads us to the next misnomer:

Myth #2: Certain types of data are better than others at helping you solve a problem

Resilience Thinking Method™ Truth: There is no such thing as bad data.

Every piece of information about the issue you are attempting to address tells you something about that issue.

Yet, how many times have you seen people call information irrelevant or set data aside because it wasn’t considered valid? A bad review can be ignored as an anomaly. A decrease in morale can be excused because of a global pandemic. A complaint against a supervisor is dismissed because of the young age of the employee.

There will always be a “good” reason behind dismissing data points that you don’t understand. But, the reality is, you dismissed data because you didn’t understand it, not because the data was bad.

This moves us to the most fundamental (and largely ignored) part of problem-solving: processing information.

Myth #3: It is possible, and ideal, to solve a problem rationally rather than emotionally

Resilience Thinking Method™ Truth: Effective problem-solving requires processing of all information. Emotions are information, too.

Recently, I witnessed an interview conducted with a U.S. voter. One of the interview questions asked the voter what they were most proud of with regard to their political party. Specifically, the voter was asked what they believed their party did especially well. The voter responded, “We make decisions rationally rather than emotionally.”

The idea that problem-solving and decision-making should be rational rather than emotional is a common misunderstanding. Rational decisions are not devoid of emotion. In fact, effective decisions need to consider all issue-related information, including critical information embedded in emotion and feeling.

My research found that when making decisions and processing related information, people time-after-time substantiated their reasoning and affirmed their decisions solely based on how they felt about the information they were considering. In other words, their feelings were front and center throughout the decision-making process.

If you are thinking, “Well, that’s interesting, but that’s not what I do. I always set aside my feelings when making a decision,” consider your confidence in a piece of data or a decision you’ve made. That confidence, its a feeling. And, so is doubt. And sadness. And joy.

The bottom line is that our feelings are not detrimental to decision-making. They are information in the decision-making process. And, most of the time, emotions are really useful pieces of information!

Instead of dismissing emotion as irrelevant to decision-making, ask yourself what you learn from a feeling or emotion. What do you learn about your values through your own emotional response? What do you learn about others’ values based on how they react?

Denying the information embedded in emotion sets you up to make an uninformed decision. It denies reality. And denying reality, is simply, irrational.