What is confirmation bias ? Do you have it? Why is it a problem?

The Greek historian Thucydides described the phenomena of confirmation bias nearly 2500 years ago by remarking, '… for it is?a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope?what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not fancy'

Confirmation bias is?the tendency to seek out, interpret, judge and remember information?so that it supports one's pre-existing views and ideas.

The phenomenon was first described as confirmation bias by?Peter Wason?in 1960.?

It means people less likely to engage with information which challenges their views.

For example, A person believes that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people.

Another example of this is a study?of 376 million Facebook users, which found that many preferred to get their news from a small number of sources they already agreed with.

Even when people do get exposed to challenging information, confirmation bias can cause them to reject it and, perversely, become even more certain that their own beliefs are correct.

The mental process which helps explain this behaviour is called motivated reasoning.

What is worrying is that motivated reasoning may actually reduce one's ability to understand and interpret evidence, and so make them less likely to be swayed by reasoned argument.

According to science confirmation bias is one of the most pervasive and problematic cognitive biases that affects decision making. For that reason, it is also one of the hardest to tackle.?

“The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion, draws all things else to support and agree with it. 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.” - — Francis Bacon

When people would like a certain idea or concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true. They are motivated by wishful thinking. This leads the individual to stop gathering information, when the evidence gathered so far, confirms or prejudices the views one would like to be true.

It happens when we are drawn to information that aligns with one's world views and when one hold onto these beliefs, even in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary.

Once one formed a view, they embrace information that confirms that view while ignoring, or rejecting, information that casts doubt on it.?Confirmation bias?suggests that we don’t perceive circumstances objectively.

It explains why two people with opposing views on a topic can see the same evidence and come away feeling validated by it.

This bias can lead one to make poor decisions because it distorts the reality from which they draw evidence.?

"When we have a lot at stake, we find that these subconscious processes distort our reasoning. One thing that we all need to do is to acknowledge that we're all susceptible to it "- Jonathan Ellis

There is also something called as Alternative facts?

?In one case, the person doesn't really believe what they're saying. For example "You believe you can't sing and you haven't even tried to attempt to sing at all"

In the other case, you really do believe what you're saying. Your mind has found a way to make that conclusion seem the right one.?For example" Your parents, friends and teachers said you can never sing, you'll never be good at it and hence you came to the conclusion that you cannot sing"

Lewis Carroll stated, “we are what we believe we are,”

• So if we know it's not good for us why does it happen?

Confirmation bias is a shortcut not work on ourselves.

We don't want to do the hard work.

To gather, interpret and learn information, oh my it's such a task. Evaluating evidence (especially when it is complicated or unclear) requires a great deal of mental energy.

Our brains prefer to take shortcuts. This saves the time needed to make decisions, especially when we’re under pressure.?

One knows that evaluating evidence takes more time and energy, and so the brain looks for shortcuts to make the process more efficient.

In “The Case for Motivated Reasoning,” Ziva Kunda wrote, “we give special weight to information that allows us to come to the conclusion we want to reach.”

Constantly evaluating our worldview is exhausting, so we prefer to strengthen it instead. Plus holding different ideas in our head is hard work. It’s much easier to just focus on one.

We ignore contradictory evidence because it is so unpalatable for our brains. According to research by Jennifer Lerner and Philip Tetlock, we are motivated to think critically only when held accountable by others.

It saves face

Another reason we sometimes show confirmation bias is that it protects our self-esteem.

No one likes feeling bad about themselves — and realizing that a belief we value is false can have this effect. Our Beliefs often shape our identities, so disproving them can sometimes be painful or unfathomable to some. Some might even believe being wrong suggests we lack of knowledge. As a result, they often look for information that supports rather than disproves our existing beliefs.

By understanding this, we can learn to identify it in ourselves and others. We can be cautious!

Willard V. Quine and J.S. Ullian described this bias in?The Web of Belief?as such:

The desire to be right and the desire to have been right are two desires, and the sooner we separate them the better off we are. 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.

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” - — Robertson Davies

Harvey Lyold says : "A bias is merely a set of past learning, experience and outcomes that has lead us to certain axioms that filter our current environment. If we see a cheetah in the front yard our bias is that it will eat us. A bias is our brain's way of consolidating information into an axiom that we react according to preplanned patterns. If we look at children their initial idea that crying gets them what they want, because it works, doesn't serve them well once they can communicate."

As we mature our biases are tested and changed. But this is not always the case. A deeply emotional bias formed through experience, such as being terminated under circumstances you don't agree with, may in fact challenge us when we sense the conditions arise again.

If we can see bias in this way, a filter of sorts that helps us make quick decisions, then we should in non chaotic times, be able to test the bias, find its origins and rethink this axiomatic response we have locked in to our behavior.

3 ways to counter confirmation bias to improve your communication, relationships and work product:?

1. Be conscious of bias?– Confirmation bias can be a strong influence, so you will need to?actively look for evidence that validates your point of view.
2. Rewire limiting beliefs – Get out of your doubter mode. Approach someone you know has achieved success in the things you want, who do and did things differently from you and ask them what how they saw where they are now years back. Understand their journey. Learn from their mistakes even before you commit them and try to explore them differently and make the decision based on your findings.
3. Get support?– Approach a coach or someone you trust to help you make unbiased decisions, to explore your thoughts and beliefs without the limiting beliefs affecting it's glory. At IDH I coach individuals (see below) who want an accountability partner. Book here?for a free 121 session.

In one of this comments Harvey Lloyd gives us some steps to avoid biases as below

We must set aside time to evaluate the experiences of our day, week, month.

1.Did my inputs into my experiences of the past yield the results anticipated?

2. Was it environment, others or my biases?

3. Am I controlling where I only have influence.

If we don't make time in solitude to be honest with ourselves, then foolishness will most likely reign.

He quotes; "Biases live within our perspective. If we don't take the time to review our perspective and its outcomes, we are also prone to repeat history."

Now that you've read all about Bias consider looking back over the previous paragraphs and ask yourself:

• Which parts did I automatically agree with?
• Which parts did I ignore or skim over without realizing?
• How did I react to the points which I agreed or disagreed with?
• Did this post confirm any ideas I already had? Why?
• What if I thought the opposite of those ideas?

To learn more about confirmation bias, read?The Little Book of Stupidity?or?The Black Swan.

If you still want to know more about how biases are formed check out the comment section of Dr. Ali Anani Phd post, which gave birth to the research on this post.

Disclaimer:

This is knowledge article is put together with various valid content on confirmation bias and source links added. The views expressed are not to hurt anybody or anyone's sentiments. Please look at this as an education content - the bigger picture in terms of personal development. The author of this post does not take any credit for the content in this knowledge article.