Making Assumptions Without Evidence: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Making Assumptions Without Evidence, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: ask what evidence backs each claim
Write down the claims you are relying on, then ask what evidence supports each one.
What claim are you accepting without checking?
Practices that may help
- Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
The Ladder of Inference - Probe for evidence behind claims
Ask "what evidence supports that?" before accepting any factual or evaluative claim.
Socratic Questioning - Set charitable interpretation as your cognitive default
Deliberately adopt the assumption that people are probably doing their best given their constraints.
Hanlon's Razor: Never Attribute to Malice What Stupidity Can Explain - Mind-reading
Assume you know what others are thinking, usually negatively, without evidence.
Cognitive Distortions: The Thinking Errors Behind Anxiety and Depression - Rule out mind-reading and fortune-telling
Catch the two most common interpretation errors — assuming you know what someone is thinking, or what is about to happen.
Check the Facts, Made Practical - Update your attribution when evidence warrants
Charitable interpretation is a starting point, not a final verdict — revise it when facts change.
Hanlon's Razor: Never Attribute to Malice What Stupidity Can Explain - Evaluate evidence by its likelihood ratio, not by how it makes you feel
Ask how much more likely this evidence would be if you’re right versus if you’re wrong.
Bayesian Thinking: How to Update Beliefs Rationally - Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable - Update beliefs by degrees, not wholesale
Treat new information as evidence that shifts probabilities, not as proof that changes everything.
Base-Rate Neglect: Why We Ignore the Odds - Apply the same evidence standard regardless of whether you like the conclusion
Grade the evidence before you know which conclusion it supports.
Motivated Reasoning
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My conclusion only makes sense because of a bunch of things I’m silently taking for granted about people and how the world works
- Someone stated something with total confidence and I just nodded and built on it
- It’s not one person — it’s that I walk through the world assuming people are basically selfish, lazy, out for themselves, so I’m braced for the worst from everyone before they’ve done a thing, and I’m exhausted by how much suspicion I carry as my baseline.
- Someone goes quiet or doesn’t text back and I’m instantly certain they’re annoyed with me or think I’m an idiot
- I walked away from that meeting certain my boss is unhappy with me and certain the whole project is going to fall apart
Related concerns
- Making Assumptions Without All The Facts
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
- Unwarranted Assumption In Critical Thinking
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
- Assumption Meaning In Critical Thinking
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
- How To Avoid Assumptions In Critical Thinking
Before answering a question, ask whether it is the right question and whether it is framed to produce useful answers.
Question the question itself
- Making Assumptions About Others
Assume you know what others are thinking, usually negatively, without evidence.
Mind-reading
- Benefit Of The Doubt
Charitable interpretation is a starting point, not a final verdict — revise it when facts change.
Update your attribution when evidence warrants
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.