Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out, interpret, and remember information that confirms our preexisting beliefs. In other words, it involves focusing on and remembering only details that confirm our expectations or stereotypes.
Most people think they’re free from this cognitive bias, but the truth is we all suffer from it, and it’s much more common than we’d like to admit. The worst part is that we often don’t realize it, and it leads us to make poor decisions in life.
How does confirmation bias affect us?
- When searching for information. Confirmation bias affects how we perceive the world around us. If we feel sad, lonely, and hopeless, we’re likely to only notice how happy others look. At the same time, we’ll only notice the negative events that happen to us, exaggerating their consequences. Confirmation bias works like gray-tinted glasses that prevent us from seeing the colors around us. This way, we only notice the details that confirm our beliefs and mood.
- When interpreting data. We don’t have an objective view of reality; everything that happens to us passes through our mental filters. In fact, we don’t even react to events, but rather to our interpretation of what happens to us. However, confirmation bias makes this interpretation even more subjective, as we assign the data the meaning that best suits us, confirming what we want to believe. This is why, when we’re falling in love, we see the person as an Adonis, but during the fall, we begin to notice their flaws.
- Remembering things. Our memory isn’t a warehouse where we store all our memories safely. Memories are constantly changing and aren’t immune to confirmation bias. A classic psychological experiment showed that, in a game between Princeton and Dartmouth universities, students from the respective universities who attended as spectators were more likely to remember fouls committed by the opposing team. This means that when we want something to be true, we can choose which memories confirm it, or even tweak some of our memories.
Why are we all victims of confirmation bias?
We don’t like making mistakes; we believe that making mistakes makes us less intelligent and capable. That’s one of the reasons we seek evidence to support our beliefs and opinions. This way, we avoid cognitive dissonance, a particularly unpleasant phenomenon we don’t like dealing with because it often leads to a change in our self-image.
This is confirmed by an experiment conducted at the University of Southern California in which researchers presented participants with evidence contrary to their political beliefs while they were undergoing a brain scan. They observed that brain areas associated with physical pain were activated. This means that we perceive cognitive dissonance as a painful event that we find difficult to deal with.
Obviously, it’s easy to accept differing points of view when it comes to things we don’t care much about, but everything changes when those facts relate to deeply held beliefs that are part of the core of our identity. In those cases, the attack on our ego is too great, which generates anxiety and stress.
In fact, it has been observed that a situation of cognitive dissonance triggers a fight-or-flight response, the same one activated when we believe we are in danger. Therefore, we can react by fleeing or fighting, in the most literal or metaphorical sense of the term. In either case, we trigger confirmation bias, which helps us regain our lost balance, reinforcing our self-image.
Cognitive dissonance is compounded by other phenomena that further accentuate confirmation bias:
- The essential goal of our brain is self-protection , which applies to both the physical and psychological levels. Since opposing events challenge our identity, the brain perceives them as a psychological threat but protects itself as if they were a real physical threat.
- There’s just too much information to process . Considering opposing hypotheses and trying to evaluate the evidence for and against each one is a mental process that requires a great deal of energy. In these cases, our brains can “optimize” a shortcut to arrive at a solution more quickly. And of course, it’s much easier to focus on what we already know that supports our beliefs.
How to avoid confirmation bias?
While it’s impossible to completely eliminate cognitive biases, we can take some precautions to prevent them from leading us to make poor decisions in life. In fact, making decisions from a biased perspective often leads to recriminations and regrets.
- Take on life with curiosity, not out of conviction
When we approach every interaction as a chance to test ourselves, holding rigid beliefs, we inevitably succumb to confirmation bias.
This is demonstrated by a study conducted at Columbia University. These researchers analyzed two groups of school-aged children: the first group tended to avoid challenging problems for fear of making mistakes, while the second group actively sought out new challenges, seeing them as learning opportunities. They found that the second group significantly outperformed the first.
This means we must focus less on being right and more on experiencing life with curiosity, with the attitude of an eternal student or a child of wonder. We must be willing to make mistakes because only then can we open ourselves to new ideas.
- Seek disagreement
Understanding different points of view can help us refine our perspective and even change our most deeply held beliefs. The trick? Surround yourself with people who hold opposing views.
When we deal with people who think differently, we open ourselves up to diversity, and it stops bothering us. Therefore, our ego doesn’t feel constantly attacked, and we’re less likely to need to activate confirmation bias.
In fact, a very effective technique for making important life decisions is to ask someone close to you to play “devil’s advocate” and give you their reasons for not making the decision you’re most inclined to make. This will help you see other points of view and make a more rational decision.
- Reflect on thought
To combat cognitive biases, we must learn to detect our instinctive reactions. So, the next time you encounter data that completely confirms your worldview, stop and think about all the assumptions you’re probably making. Look for ways to prove yourself wrong by focusing on all the details you’re likely overlooking.
Introspection is always a good exercise because it allows us to better understand ourselves and remain alert to the biases our brain can automatically activate. An excellent exercise, to prevent our ego from feeling attacked, is to imagine ourselves as someone else, who thinks completely differently. By putting ourselves in their shoes, we can find different reasoning and perspectives that bring our cognitive biases to light.
References:
Kaplan, J.T. et. Al. (2016) Neural correlates of maintaining one’s political beliefs in the face of counterevidence. Scientific Reports ; 6:39589.
Dweck, CS (1990) Self-theories and goals: their role in motivation, personality, and development. Nebr Symp Motiv 38: 199-235.
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