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Our brains are state of the art biological machines that we rely on for our survival

but that gooey and groovy pink chunk of wet brain matter in your skull can do alot more than that required for survival and the things that it does are not always logical.



It is the result of the shortcuts formed in our brain that we have prejudices and biases and fears and intuitions

And as highly insightful and intelligent animals we are, we are also more likely to succumb to our irrational thinking and false intuition.



Introducing confirmation bias ; your very own personal information filter.



(whatever efforts are , they’re purely to help people in need , make your part by sharing this information so it can reach someone in need)

Contents:

What is confirmation bias?

How it affect us everyday?

Why is confirmation bias created

How to avoid excessive use?

WHAT IS CONFIRMATION BIAS?

Image source : blogs.scientificamerican.com



A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias ( more in cognitive bias vs attributional bias) that involves favoring and accepting information that confirms your previously existing beliefs or biases or conclusions.

For example, imagine that a person holds a belief that white skinned people are more creative than all the other people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both white skinned and creative, they will place more importance to this evidence that supports their belief while discounting incidences or facts that doesn’t support their idea.

HOW IT AFFECTS US EVERYDAY?

Image source: tvtropes.org



The confirmation bias promotes alot of problematic patterns of thinking due to people’s tendency to ignore specific information that contradicts their beliefs and favouring information that supports their beliefs



Due to biased favouring of information, it can start a loop in which people get trapped due to their initial step i.e the search for information that they favour.



Confirmation bias causes people to favour or accept information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs and to ignore. Or reject information that contradicts them



which leads to biased search for information, This means that people readily look to find information that supports their beliefs, and to actively avoid information that contradicts them Also leading in the finding of biased information.

Now if a person only finds the information that he supports and ignores the other information. It will lead him/her to interpret the information accordingly by interpreting information in a way that confirms their beliefs



Even if the information could be interpreted in a way that contradicts them eg: politicians generally present facts in a way that supports their party while if interpreted from another point of view those facts can be presented against them as well.



Thus they will remember that information as they interpreted it resulting in recalling biased information wherever they have to recall it,

There are generally two primary mechanisms which are used in order to explain why people experience the confirmation bias

Both of these factors are related to the same underlying principle, and specifically to people’s desire to minimize their cognitive dissonance.



Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort caused by two or more contradicting beliefs.

(More in cognitive dissonance )



Challenge avoidance- this signifies the fact that people don’t want to find out that they are wrong. Which can avoid cognitive dissonance by motivating them to avoid or ignore information which contradicts their beliefs.



People also actively reinforce their beliefs by finding new information that already confirm their beliefs and thus reducing cognitive dissonance as well.



People also process information based on how their emotions guide them to, rather than based on how their logic would guide them. Haidt, J (2001) causing people to fixate on confirming a single possible hypothesis from the start, while ignoring the possibility that this hypothesis might be wrong or that there can be other better hypothesis.



Example : I am emotionally attached to a company and I fee good when they’re in good light thus I’ll try to defend the quality of their products even against strong evidence suggesting otherwise. Because it makes me feel bad emotionally to see my favourite company in a bad light.

Avoid coming to a conclusion too early.



once people have a specific conclusion (point) in mind, they tend to try and confirm it, instead of trying to formulate and test other possible conclusion. Even if you have formed a judgement or a conclusion or a decision, hold it back a little bit, it will only strengthen your information.

Processing new information in a logical and unemotional manner.



one of the main reasons why people experience the confirmation bias is their tendency to reject contradictory information and favor confirmatory information due to emotional reasons, and specifically to minimize cognitive dissonance that they might experience otherwise.

Therefore, by encouraging people to think logically and unemotionally rather than to trust emotional intuitions and to understand their own reasoning process.

Thankyou for reading.



I hope I’ve helped you, for any queries



DM me on Instagram or Quora I’ll be more than happy to help



The backyard psychologist



(This blog isn’t monetized so whatever efforts are , they’re purely to help people in need , make your part by sharing this information so it can reach someone in need)

References



https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-confirmation-bias-2795024



https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias%3famp



Warren W. Tryon, in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychotherapy, 2014