You only see what your eyes want to see
This is one of my favourite songs by Madonna — and I've quoted it so many times whenever I see people trying to re-confirm their prior beliefs. Turns out there's actually a term for it.
This is one of my favourite songs by Madonna and I have quoted this song so many times whenever I see people are trying to re-confirm their prior belief or hypothesis. Little did I realise that there is actually a term associated with this activity.
As human beings we have a tendency to be selective and cherry-pick information which helps us to confirm our pre conceived beliefs and ideas. The term associated for us to have this tendency is called Confirmation Bias. It is a cognitive bias which is defined as a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and affects the decisions and judgments that they make.
We humans function in a way that we try to seek comfort, familiarity, even validation. We tend to stick with our own kinds of people, try to form our own tribes or belong to one. This is a basic need we all have.
I am not sure why we do that — maybe it is because we find information evaluation too taxing and strenuous. Our survival-based ancestry helps us to make decisions which will fix things for now. Or maybe there is such a plethora of information available now that we get tired of browsing and researching that we decide to go with what our experience, our memory tells us to do.
My favourite confirmation bias of all time has been when I have an annoying headache and I google my symptoms I am always convinced that I have a life threatening disease. Of course, I will not even ponder on the fact that I did not get a good night sleep, or that I was looking at my screen for way too long!
Sometimes, the confirmation bias we deal with is so fundamental that we don't even get to realise it is happening. We lean towards evidence that confirms our beliefs and discard what we do not want to believe in. More often than not it muddies our brains and forms perceptions about everything.
The antidote? Curiosity. Ask questions. Seek out the opposite view. Be willing to be wrong. It is uncomfortable, yes. But it is how we grow.