EOTO Terms and Concepts- Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias: 

  The definition of confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out and give undue credibility to information that supports a desired conclusion. Due to confirmation bias, a party may unduly discredit contradictory information to the desired conclusion, or incorrectly believe it to reinforce a minority viewpoint at best. The majority of people do this unintentionally and tend to ignore the things that don't align with their beliefs. 

WHY? 

There are two main reasons why people do confirmation bias even if they don't realize they are. 

1) It's a more efficient way to process information when you are being bombarded with information and it takes too much time to carefully process the information and come up with an unbiased conclusion. It's easier to just believe what aligns with your values and not look into it. 

2) Another reason is people's self-esteem. Learning that your values might be wrong or incorrect in some people's eyes is harder to deal with when those values have been put into your brain since you grew up. It's easier to ignore the details that don't align with what you believe. 

Ways that you can try to lean away from confirmation bias is by surrounding yourself with both sides of the story. Make sure you watch both sides of the news and when an issue pops up see how different people with different values and morals react. Try to surround yourself with people of all different backgrounds so you are more well-rounded and understand why their opinion is the way it is. 

A real-life example of confirmation bias is when you are researching a topic you believe strongly in such as abortion or gun violence which are big topics in the world today and you seek out a news source that is already aligned with your current position. If you come upon a site that you don't agree with you can either read their opinion and consider them or think it is stupid and not care to listen to their opinions. If you choose the second option you are practicing confirmation bias with out realizing it. 

Some positives about confirmation bias, 

1) It can help us reach our personal goals faster. This is because if you're easily influenced and you

switch your opinion every time someone contradicts it, people will discourage you from your goals and then you might never reach them. If you stick to one opinion then people might also agree with you and come over to your side and help you. This isn't as likely to happen if you keep switching it up and don't stay focused on your personal goals. 

2) When you have strong beliefs you are more likely to be confident and it gives that person more of a sense of certainty and security.

A downside is that it can influence your decisions and lead to poor choices. Confirmation bias greatly affects our day-to-day choices and if we are going through life with a very biased outlook we are not making well-informed choices. There might also be missed opportunities in your life because of your biased outlook on life.