Confirmation bias can have a strong negative impact on the way we make judgments. Here’s what makes confirmation bias so problematic and how you can work around it. To be in perfect shape for 9 masks of fire canada.
If you type “Are cats better than dogs?” into an online search engine, you’ll get numerous articles that provide lists of arguments why cats are better. If, on the other hand, you ask “Are dogs better than cats?” you will be shown primarily content that is supposed to prove why dogs are better. Depending on how you ask the question, it confirms the bias you have in judging dogs and cats anyway. This is a case of confirmation bias.
Both questions already imply a certain opinion, which the search engine finally confirms to you. If you ask whether cats are better than dogs, you probably prefer the house tigers and then get a lot of information displayed that confirms exactly this point of view. What advantages dogs have is rather lost. It may not even be shown to you on the first page or you may (unconsciously) tune it out. After all, most people would rather have the opinion confirmed that they already have anyway.
This confirmation bias can have dangerous consequences in some areas of life.
What is the confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive distortion. It describes the tendency of human thinking to pick out exactly the information that confirms already existing opinions. The psychological phenomenon is also known as “cherry-picking”: we choose only the ones we like) or “my-side bias”: we think that our view of things is the right one. The confirmation bias is expressed, for instance, when people
- Ignore information that speaks for the opposite point of view,
- attach more value to information that speaks in favour of their own opinion,
- selectively gather facts or interpret them in a biased way
or can only remember situations or information that confirm the corresponding point of view.
That confirmation bias occurs is likely due to a number of factors that interact in complex ways. Most psychological theories on this focus on the motivation of human thought. According to these approaches, we prefer confirmatory information because it facilitates decision making, reduces complexity, and thus makes the world more tangible and manageable. Being confirmed in one’s own opinion therefore feels good.
Another explanatory approach looks at the mechanisms in our brain. Our brain tends to process information with as little effort as possible. What we have already seen or read is processed more easily and quickly. The brain interprets this as an indication of the truth of something. We are more likely to accept what we have already read as a true fact than things we are confronted with for the first time.
Confirmation error on the job
Confirmation bias can thus generally lead us to make unfavourable decisions based on insufficient information. Among other things, this can affect efficiency, performance and meaningfulness in our professional lives.
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