Confirmation Bias: Direct Influence On Beliefs

The scientific endeavor helps us become more educated citizens so that we are able to approach data presented by political candidates with a healthy dose of skepticism by providing them with the tools needed. Critical thinking skills are important to have when viewing any new data in order to really understand the date presented, instead of just trusting the biased opinion of the one presenting the data. In chapter 1 of Psychology: Core Concepts, it provides a list of six critical thinking skills that are based on six specific questions.

Confirmation bias is a primary issue that prevents people from perceiving the world objectively. The phenomenon occurs when an individual chooses to expose themselves only to media and information that confirms a personally held belief rather than consider another side of the argument. In the media age we are currently in, it is remarkably uncomplicated to find countless arguments on one side of a controversial debate to buttress one’s own existing beliefs; we come to believe in a false consensus of our beliefs due to our limited exposure to other opinions. Consequently, especially in the United States due to having gone through an incredibly sensationalized presidential election, we are in a time somewhat marked by increased polarization.

There are many everyday examples of people using confirmation bias behavior. A student doing research on only one side to an argument for a paper to confirm their thesis may fail to fully search the topic for information that is inconsistent with what they are writing about. Also a reporter who is writing an article on an important issue may only interview

Confirmation Bias: only explore information that supports our ideas Hindsight Bias: reporting untruthfully that we projected an outcome Availability Heuristic: calculating possibilities grounded on ease of recall Base-Rate Fallacy: disregarding information about universal principles Representativeness Heuristic: making decisions grounded on stereotypes

Backfire effect is the act of denying facts on a topic because one's beliefs are typically desired over or are in contrast with factual information. This thought process is similar to confirmation bias. In confirmation bias one tends to lean on information that supports their beliefs rather than examining or even considering the opposite side of the topic. In both cases, the person who is reviewing the information does not want to be wrong. The difference between the two is that in backfire effect when confronted and proven wrong, their beliefs grow stronger. No one wants to be wrong or confronted with information that will challenge their beliefs, which is why we usually fall back on these types of defensive mechanisms.

In this “age of misinformation,” it is very hard to know what your read is true. A common misconception stated in the article is " if its on the internet, it must be true.” This cant be the situation, more people need to realize that not everything on the internet is true and they need to be sure what they are seeing is true. One way to find out if what you are reading is true is to look who the author is. There are many reputable authors that tell the truth and don't bend it. If you are unsure who the author is, it might be a good idea to research the topic. It would be best to find different articles with different authors. Some steps to take to protect yourself from “confirmation bias” are only believing things that have evidence or proof.

The confirmation bias is about us giving priority or being biased towards information that affirms preceding and existing beliefs or experiences. Suppose that a person believes that people who are left handed are more creative compared to right handed people. On any occasion the person with this belief meets a person that is creative and also left handed they regard this evidence quite important as it confirms their existing belief. They also might find proof further to back up the belief and will disregard other examples which do not support the fundamental belief. While confirmation biases have an influence on people collecting information they also have an impact how information is being interpreted and

In our daily life we often face with various cognitive biases. Today, there are about 166 types of cognitive biases. Even though we are rarely able to recognize them, cognitive biases have a great effect on our way of living. Personally, by analyzing my daily behaviour, as well as people around me, I can identify four cognitive biases, that occur more often than other. One of them is Law of the instrument,or in other words an over-reliance on a familiar tool or methods, ignoring or under-valuing alternative approaches. This cognitive bias I experience very often, since one of the weak sides of my character is stubbornness and risk aversion, so in my daily behaviour while making any decision, I tend to rely on a “familiar tool” rather than

Confirmation bias has some truly terrifying implications. It can make people completely bind to the facts around them. In particular, this has negative implications for any study preformed, and for science in general. When preforming any kind of study, it is essential that you go in with no expectation for what you are going to find. I realize that this is somewhat impossible, but in order to have the best study that you can, it is imperative that you come as close as possible. When you go in thinking that you will find something, you will undoubtedly find some evidence that suggest you are right. If you only focus on that it is possible that you will disregard something that could benefit society. Peoples’ disposition to having confirmation bias is a huge setback to

Society once had a conjecture that only discriminatory people used stereotypes, however, studies in unconscious bias now reveal that we all are guilty of using stereotypes, all the time, without knowing it. Finally, the antagonist of equality has been found, and it is us. With a limited perspective, we all have a bias view of the world, this is because we are only capable of hearing, seeing, and reading what is around us. A definitive version of reality is not subject to one person. Our position in society helps inform our world view, such as, our race, class, gender, religion, and culture, impacting how we view, respond and react to every experience. Often times, decision makers or not aware of their bias, which can effect the decisions being made. To begin, I will define stereotyping as it is expressed in modern society and the impact of mass media, then I will explain the process of storing stereotypes in the brain, I will give a theory of why man-kind stereotypes, and then explain how it effects decision making.

In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias (or confirmatory bias) is a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one 's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors. It is a type of cognitive bias and represents an error of inductive inference toward confirmation of the hypothesis under study.

A key function of management is making decisions. Hiring and staffing decisions. Product and marketing decisions. Mangers make strategic decisions daily to help their organizations meet their identified mission and goals. Leaders who want to ensure they are making the best decisions possible must recognize an inherent flaw in the decision making process: cognitive biases. Kreitner and Kinicki (2013) uses the term “judgmental heuristics” defining it as representing “rules of thumb or shortcuts that people use to reduce information-processing demands” (p. 335). We utilize this type of thinking daily, as it allows us to make quick decisions without analyzing all the data in a given situation.

From a psychological perspective, beliefs are behavioral phenomena. This is best described as bias or a distortion of reality that can be associated with pathological conditions. Bias could cause distorted casual learning. The theory of distorted and biased learning can be attributed to phenomena such as illusion of control. Illusion of control is a false belief of control. Illusion of control may be related to superstitious behavior. It eludes to distortions in contact with a supposed reality.

To thoroughly analyze how and to what extent confirmation bias and non-critical thinking qualities have contributed and essentially modified my overall approach to the Meeting of the Minds project, I first have to clarify the meaning of the terminologies that may need some defining and recapping, for they are not words that would come up in a casual conversation. This will be especially useful for me to be able to accurately address how these readings and discussions over the last few weeks have influenced my way of thinking. Notably, confirmation bias is the act of having a predetermined idea of a certain subject at hand that affects further decisions about that particular subject that will reflect on your already present belief. For example, a video we watched in class illustrated that someone who acts on conformational bias would likely google, “how is coconut oil good for you?” (assuming it is already good for you) rather than a someone who is not acting on conformational bias would search, “is coconut oil good for you?” Moreover, in a nutshell, non-critical thinking comprises of what is called the “sponge method” of thinking. It is the method that is useful for merely absorbing information and does not require arduous mental effort, and is presented in a clear-cut fashion. In my opinion, this can be thought of thinking without thinking – which goes against what critical thinking comprises of.

The importance of the ability to apply critical thinking is having the confidence of questioning what is actually being proposed. In psychology especially you have to be willing to research and find other resources to either back up one’s claims or offer up a rebuttal as to why there is room for reasonable doubt. Continuing education and the production of supporting facts is the key to making sure that information that is unfounded is challenged and proven not to be valid . Critical thinking is imperative now more than ever because there is a constant need to think outside of the box in efforts to offer up a greater understanding when it comes psychology. Crtitical thinking is a process that has less to deal with the surfaces of issues