Confirmation Bias
How it controls the way you think
Unless you’ have studied Psychology, you may never have heard of Confirmation Bias, but it’s real and it affects each and every one of us to one degree or another. Quite simply, Confirmation Bias means that people believe what they want to believe. The truth doesn’t have a lot to do with it. This is a well-researched psychological phenomenon in which the facts don't matter to a person as long as their opinions are confirmed and reinforced.
“DON’T CONFUSE ME WITH FACTS; I’VE ALREADY MADE UP MY MIND!”
An example is a police investigation where the officer already has a suspect he believes committed the crime. The officer stops investigating once some of the evidence points to his preferred suspect. He no longer considers the possibility that a more likely suspect exists. This is how innocent people are convicted of crimes they never committed.
Confirmation bias is when desire affects beliefs. When people would like a certain idea or concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true, because they are motivated by wishful thinking. This error leads the individual to stop gathering information when the evidence gathered so far confirms the views or prejudices one would like to be true.
Once we have formed an opinion, we place value on information that confirms that view while ignoring, or rejecting, information that casts doubt on it. Confirmation bias means that we don’t perceive circumstances objectively. We pick out those bits of data that make us feel good because they confirm our prejudices and then we ignore anything that does not.
Self-deception can be like a drug, numbing you from harsh reality or turning a blind eye to the tough matter of gathering evidence and thinking. Wanting to confirm our beliefs comes naturally, while it feels uncomfortable and unnatural to look for evidence that contradicts those same beliefs.
Once you understand the concept of Confirmation Bias, you can see how important it is not to accept everything you hear at face value just because you want to believe it. The human capacity for self-deception knows no bounds. You MUST check and double check the source if you want the real truth, and be prepared to be wrong.
“People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed” Friedrich Nietzsche.