Do you also have the habit of believing only what we like? (Confirmation Bias)

Have you ever noticed how some people are so stuck in their beliefs that they don't care about the evidence? You've probably experienced this too. To prove that our way of thinking is right, we only look for information that supports it. If we see an opposing view, we ignore it. This is actually a way that all of us have in our brains. In psychology, we call this 'Confirmation Bias'.

Simply put, what is Confirmation Bias?

Confirmation Bias is the natural tendency of our minds to only seek out, pay attention to, and remember information that confirms what we already believe or an opinion.

Imagine you think, "Exercising in the morning is the best way to start your day." Now, when you search for this on the Internet or in a newspaper, your eyes always go to articles about the benefits of morning exercise. If someone says, "Exercising in the morning is not that good," you don't pay much attention to it, thinking, "Oh, that can't be true," and forget about it. That's simply called Confirmation Bias. Instead of looking at the whole picture, we only see the piece we want.

There are three main ways this tendency affects us:

This affects our lives in more than one way. Let's look at the main ways.

1. Biased Search

This is the most common way. Once you have formed an opinion about something, you only look for information that can prove it to be true. This has become even easier these days with search engines .

Imagine you want to know "Is coconut oil good for the body?" If you search for "benefits of coconut oil" on Google, you will get results that talk about the benefits of coconut oil. But if you search for "dangers of coconut oil", you will get results that talk about its disadvantages. So, what you think first determines what you search for and what you get.

2. Biased Interpretation

This is also a very strange thing. Because of this tendency, no matter what information you receive, you interpret it in a way that fits your original opinion. Even if you receive strong evidence against your opinion, you still twist it to your side.

Research has shown that people hold on to their beliefs because they tend to analyze new information with an open mind, rather than looking for ways to reinforce their beliefs. It's like watching a cricket match, where when a batsman on the other side is out, it seems obvious to us, but when someone on our team is out, we argue, "Oh no, that's not out."

3. Biased Memories

Our memory plays a role in this too. You remember events that support your beliefs, but events that contradict them are easily forgotten. Some experts believe that this is how our brain stores information. That is, things that agree with our beliefs are more easily remembered.

For example, you think that people in a certain area are very cunning. Now, even if you meet a hundred honest, good people in that area, you don't remember them very well. But if one person in that area makes a small mistake, you remember it well and say, "I told you, that's how people are in that area," and your original opinion is further confirmed.

Why does our mind work like this?

Experts talk about several reasons for this.

• Ease of information management: Our brains are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information every day. Analyzing all of this information in depth can be overwhelming. Some believe that confirmation bias helps our brains quickly sort through this information, helping us make decisions more easily.
• Building self-confidence: When we receive information that confirms what we think is right, it increases our self-esteem. The feeling of "I was right" makes us happy.
• Reducing cognitive dissonance: This is called cognitive dissonance . It is the stress that occurs when you have two contradictory ideas in your mind at the same time. For example, you know that smoking causes cancer, but you smoke. These two contradictory ideas can make you feel stressed. Confirmation bias works by reducing this kind of mental conflict. This means that you tend to look for information that justifies your actions, such as "smoking reduces stress," rather than the negative aspects of smoking.

How can we break free from this tendency?

Confirmation Bias is something we all have, so it's hard to completely eliminate it. But we can be aware of it and try to reduce its impact. This is especially important in this day and age of fake news and misinformation.

Follow the simple steps in the table below.

Other psychological phenomena related to this

In addition to the Confirmation Bias, there are several other mental biases that affect our vision.

• The Backfire Effect: This is when someone presents evidence against your opinion, instead of abandoning it, you start to cling to it even more. This is especially evident when arguing on social media.
• The Halo Effect:What happens here is that because of one good quality about someone or something, we assume that everything else about them/that thing is good. For example, if someone speaks very politely, we think that they must be very honest and talented. That one quality overshadows everything else.
• Group Attribution Bias: This is when we look at someone who belongs to a certain group and assume that they also have the "stereotypical" characteristics associated with that group. For example, we look at someone who supports a certain political party and mistakenly assume that they agree with all of that party's views.

By becoming aware of these, we can look at the world more clearly, more fairly, and more intelligently.

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