Thinking with Guts vs. Brains: What is Confirmation Bias?
Feb 20, 2017 11:00:29 GMT
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Post by ck4829 on Feb 20, 2017 11:00:29 GMT
Why do you believe the things that you believe? We like to think that our beliefs are our own, formed from our unique, individual experiences, informed by our own logic, devoid of outside bias. But “confirmation bias” is one factor that quietly pushes us to one side of the fence or the other. In short, people agree with things they already agree with.
Our beliefs are very much shaped by our environment, the people we grow up with, and what we’re taught when we’re young. But there’s another way our beliefs take root, and it has a lot less to do with our individual experiences and principles and more to do with cognitive functioning.
It’s called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is our tendency to find, favor, and remember information that already confirms our existing beliefs. In turn, it causes us to pay considerably less attention to that information that does not support what we already think that we know. The fact that Facebook feeds look so different to a conservative vs. a liberal is one proof.
Confirmation Bias in Politics
The role of confirmation bias in political discourse is a large one. It doesn’t just impact what information we choose to gather, it influences how we interpret that information, and what our brain remembers, subsequently affecting future information we hear and perpetuating a cycle of beliefs that bolster what we already think.
Google personalization feeds confirmation bias
Consider the debate over climate change. The fact that peer-reviewed scientific evidence is failing to sway so many people is clear evidence of the confirmation bias in practice. A person will always be able to find support (legitimate or not) for their beliefs. It’s why some continue to insist the moon landing or the Holocaust never happened, and why people continue to call climate change a hoax in the face of what looks to many like inconvertible truth of the very opposite.
Confirmation bias makes people seek out information that supports their beliefs, allowing them to uphold particular attitudes that make sense in their worldview. It affects the news channels they choose to watch, the newspapers and blogs they choose to read, and even their entire social media experience.
Take a trip down the Facebook newsfeed or Twitter timeline of someone who holds opposite political beliefs as your own and you’ll feel like you’ve entered an alternate reality. This Wall Street Journal graphic mentioned above demonstrates the social media confirmation bias that arises when a user has political leanings on either side of the spectrum. Google feeds this too because they personalize our search results.
Confirmation bias is often emotionally charged
One of the reasons that confirmation bias can be seen so clearly in politics is that it’s inherently emotionally charged. It’s based on deeply held beliefs and memories. It doesn’t matter if members of both parties are exposed to the exact same information, what matters is what they believed before that point. Unfortunately, this makes changing someone’s political views—even when they’re extremely antithetical to the country’s foundational strongholds—a very tricky task.
www.business2community.com/strategy/thinking-guts-vs-brains-confirmation-bias-01775938#KVSiioJ9AfQxhySR.97
Our beliefs are very much shaped by our environment, the people we grow up with, and what we’re taught when we’re young. But there’s another way our beliefs take root, and it has a lot less to do with our individual experiences and principles and more to do with cognitive functioning.
It’s called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is our tendency to find, favor, and remember information that already confirms our existing beliefs. In turn, it causes us to pay considerably less attention to that information that does not support what we already think that we know. The fact that Facebook feeds look so different to a conservative vs. a liberal is one proof.
Confirmation Bias in Politics
The role of confirmation bias in political discourse is a large one. It doesn’t just impact what information we choose to gather, it influences how we interpret that information, and what our brain remembers, subsequently affecting future information we hear and perpetuating a cycle of beliefs that bolster what we already think.
Google personalization feeds confirmation bias
Consider the debate over climate change. The fact that peer-reviewed scientific evidence is failing to sway so many people is clear evidence of the confirmation bias in practice. A person will always be able to find support (legitimate or not) for their beliefs. It’s why some continue to insist the moon landing or the Holocaust never happened, and why people continue to call climate change a hoax in the face of what looks to many like inconvertible truth of the very opposite.
Confirmation bias makes people seek out information that supports their beliefs, allowing them to uphold particular attitudes that make sense in their worldview. It affects the news channels they choose to watch, the newspapers and blogs they choose to read, and even their entire social media experience.
Take a trip down the Facebook newsfeed or Twitter timeline of someone who holds opposite political beliefs as your own and you’ll feel like you’ve entered an alternate reality. This Wall Street Journal graphic mentioned above demonstrates the social media confirmation bias that arises when a user has political leanings on either side of the spectrum. Google feeds this too because they personalize our search results.
Confirmation bias is often emotionally charged
One of the reasons that confirmation bias can be seen so clearly in politics is that it’s inherently emotionally charged. It’s based on deeply held beliefs and memories. It doesn’t matter if members of both parties are exposed to the exact same information, what matters is what they believed before that point. Unfortunately, this makes changing someone’s political views—even when they’re extremely antithetical to the country’s foundational strongholds—a very tricky task.
www.business2community.com/strategy/thinking-guts-vs-brains-confirmation-bias-01775938#KVSiioJ9AfQxhySR.97