Mind Trap #7 | The Confirmation Bias

 

“People believe what they want to believe and then look for reasons to reinforce their beliefs.”

 This blog is part of our series of some advanced Mind Traps which will help you overcome difficult situations and equip you with more wisdom for daily living. These include:

  1. Cognitive Dissonance
  2. Spotlight Effect
  3. Anchoring Effect
  4. Halo Effect
  5. Gambler's Fallacy
  6. Contrast Effect
  7. Confirmation Bias
  8. Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon
  9. Zeigarnik Effect

 

The Confirmation Bias

 


  • You have an existing belief
    • if you are asked to search for a proof
    • you will find evidence to support that belief of yours
  • people actively seek out information that confirms their existing beliefs
    • & ignore information that contradicts them
    • this contradicting info is forgotten very quickly
    • we hate being wrong or to find out that we believed something false
    • people don’t like discomforting evidence
  • Works in a cycle
    • existing belief focus us on selective evidence → finding that further reinforces our belief and so on..
  • can lead to narrow perspectives
  • How to fix?
    • Scientific Research method
      1. Form a hypothesis/belief
      2. Ask questions
      3. gather evidence
      4. test the hypothesis
      5. give your beliefs a score of confidence
        1. 0% to 95%
    • Concept of contradiction
      • Finding information that proves you are Wrong → is one of the best ways to determine if you are Right
      • Look for reverse of what you believe
      • try to prove that the reverse is true
  • Beware
    • Social Bubble
      • Social media and search engines want to get more clicks from you
      • if you clicked cricket link before → you are more likely to click another cricket news
      • Similarly, if you click a page about some opinion → the algorithms tune future results as per your original choices
        • it won’t show you opposing point of views
      • This in turn blocks your general view
      • your browsing history supercharges confirmation bias
  • The more you conform the facts to fit your beliefs → the narrower your perspective becomes
    • that narrow reality becomes all that you can see

 

  • More confirmation bias = more confidence
  • When someone challenges our opinions → we tend to become defensive
  • People can also be tricked into this
    • if a piece of information is repeated enough times
    • you see that being said and posted everywhere
    • we tend to believe that and then the actual facts don’t affect us
    • Frequent Repetition = Familiarity → → Familiar ~ Truth
  • How to fix?
    • no ways to eliminate it as of now
    • you can only reduce it
      • remind yourself that this mind-trap exists
      • don’t associate yourself with any side quickly
      • think Gray - not black and white
      • Don’t accept what others believe
      • get your information from a variety of sources

 


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