People have general tendencies in how we process information and establish meaning that drive the dissonance between our perceptions and our reality. There are many types of cognitive bias but there are two basic examples that regularly come into play when we try to make sense of the world.
Confirmation bias might come into play in the workplace, for example, when you determine the strategic direction of your organization. You might be convinced by recent stories in the media or at conferences that a particular population could be served by your organization despite the fact that this service would be a distinct departure from your typical operations.
As you begin to outline a proposal for your new line of service, you unconsciously pay more attention to and incorporate information that supports your proposal—as opposed to information that would convince you to stay the course you are on.
While it is often necessary to take risks and accept some degree of uncertainty when planning a new program or service, confirmation bias can make it harder for us to objectively identify and consider those risks. If you knew nothing about the proposal and were reading it for the first time, how would you react?
You might unearth some risks or challenges that confirmation bias had shrouded. False consensus effect comes to life at work in many scenarios. For example, as an executive director, you might be convinced that a new organizational initiative is the correct path to pursue and that your board will completely support your efforts.
However, when you share your plans with them, you might find that the board holds a completely polar position. Inability to anticipate a different point of view or to reconcile two distinct perspectives can lead to a deadlock, which prevents your organization from moving forward.
The desire to be right is the thirst for truth. On all counts, both practical and theoretical, there is nothing but good to be said for it.
The desire to have been right, on the other hand, is the pride that goeth before a fall. It stands in the way of our seeing we were wrong, and thus blocks the progress of our knowledge. Experimentation beginning in the s revealed our tendency to confirm existing beliefs, rather than questioning them or seeking new ones. Other research has revealed our single-minded need to enforce ideas. Like many mental models , confirmation bias was first identified by the ancient Greeks.
For it is a habit of humanity to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not fancy. Our use of this cognitive shortcut is understandable. Evaluating evidence especially when it is complicated or unclear requires a great deal of mental energy. Our brains prefer to take shortcuts. As many evolutionary scientists have pointed out, our minds are unequipped to handle the modern world.
For most of human history, people experienced very little new information during their lifetimes. Decisions tended to be survival based. Now, we are constantly receiving new information and have to make numerous complex choices each day.
To stave off overwhelm, we have a natural tendency to take shortcuts. Contradicting information causes us to shy away, grasping for a reason to discard it.
The confirmation bias is so fundamental to your development and your reality that you might not even realize it is happening. We look for evidence that supports our beliefs and opinions about the world but excludes those that run contrary to our own… In an attempt to simplify the world and make it conform to our expectations, we have been blessed with the gift of cognitive biases.
And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects. The complexity of confirmation bias arises partly from the fact that it is impossible to overcome it without an awareness of the concept.
Even when shown evidence to contradict a biased view, we may still interpret it in a manner that reinforces our current perspective. In one Stanford study, half of the participants were in favor of capital punishment, and the other half were opposed to it. Both groups read details of the same two fictional studies.
Half of the participants were told that one study supported the deterrent effect of capital punishment, and the other opposed it. The other participants read the opposite information. No matter, the majority of participants stuck to their original views, pointing to the data that supported it and discarding that which did not.
Confirmation bias clouds our judgment. It gives us a skewed view of information, even when it consists only of numerical figures. Read it with sorrow and you will feel hate. Read it with anger and you will feel vengeful. Read it with paranoia and you will feel confusion. Read it with empathy and you will feel compassion.
Read it with love and you will feel flattery. Read it with hope and you will feel positive. Read it with humor and you will feel joy. Read it without bias and you will feel peace. Do not read it at all and you will not feel a thing.
Confirmation bias is somewhat linked to our memories similar to availability bias. We have a penchant for recalling evidence that backs up our beliefs. However neutral the original information was, we fall prey to selective recall. As Leo Tolstoy wrote:. The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.
They can survive and even be bolstered by evidence that most uncommitted observers would agree logically demands some weakening of such beliefs. They can even survive the destruction of their original evidential bases. When first learning about the existence of confirmation bias, many people deny that they are affected. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Where do your beliefs and opinions come from? If you're like most people, you feel that your convictions are rational, logical, and impartial, based on the result of years of experience and objective analysis of the information you have available.
In reality, all of us are susceptible to a tricky problem known as a confirmation bias. Our beliefs are often based on paying attention to the information that upholds them—while at the same time tending to ignore the information that challenges them. A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that confirms your previously existing beliefs or biases. For example, imagine that a person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people.
Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and creative, they place greater importance on this "evidence" that supports what they already believe. This individual might even seek proof that further backs up this belief while discounting examples that don't support the idea. Confirmation biases impact how we gather information, but they also influence how we interpret and recall information.
For example, people who support or oppose a particular issue will not only seek information to support it, they will also interpret news stories in a way that upholds their existing ideas. They will also remember details in a way that reinforces these attitudes. Consider the debate over gun control. Let's say Sally is in support of gun control. She seeks out news stories and opinion pieces that reaffirm the need for limitations on gun ownership.
When she hears stories about shootings in the media, she interprets them in a way that supports her existing beliefs. Henry, on the other hand, is adamantly opposed to gun control. He seeks out news sources that are aligned with his position.
When he comes across news stories about shootings, he interprets them in a way that supports his current point of view.
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