Confirmation bias is the natural tendency of our brain to try to identify evidence that supports our beliefs. The main issue with confirmation bias is that it tries to find evidence even where there is NONE. It does that by reinterpreting facts in a desired manner or by recalling memories in a way that supports the desired belief. Unfortunately, recalling memories in a wrong way just to support one’s beliefs has manifested even in court testimonies with severe consequences.
Why is it that bad?
Confirmation bias is what helps rumours and even fake news spread so fast. Let’s look at two examples.
First case. You read some news about a politician being accused or suspected of receiving bribe. Most people hold the general belief that all politicians are corrupt. The accusation will not surprise you, even if not confirmed yet. In fact you’ll even find supporting “evidence”: that politician used to hang out with x who was condemned, how else could he afford that big house, etc. You will not bother to check the facts or follow up. Next time you hear a second accusation towards the same person, you will recall that there was a preceding case and you’ll say that there is no smoke without fire. That’s how you get manipulated.
Second case. You hear a rumour about a colleague having an affair with someone from the management. The supporting evidence springs up like mushrooms. That’s why that person got promoted, has a quieter project, that’s why x didn’t get appointed and so on. The problem with rumours vs fake news is that there is no way you can actually check them. So the rumour will stay with you longer.
The even bigger issue is that once you hold negative beliefs about yourself or your self-worth, your brain will try to find supporting evidence. Confirmation bias contributes massively to keeping people stuck in toxic relationships (of any kind). It does that by using one good thing as proof to counterbalance 100 negative facts.
Why does the brain work like this?
You see, your brain likes to keep its ducks in a row. We could joke that the brain has a bit of OCD: it likes things organized, well settled. It doesn’t like chaos. When the brain sees a fact contrary to its natural beliefs or develops a new belief contradicting an old one, it faces what is called a cognitive dissonance and that causes stress. Therefore, at that moment the brain wants and needs to decide fast which belief is the correct one, in order to escape discomfort.
That’s basically how PR acts when s*** hits the fan. Company X has done something bad. All of a sudden you’re starting to see paid publicity about Company X’ social projects and all the good things they’ve done in the world. So now your brain has to decide: is company X really that bad? Of course, if company X has spilled some oil and has caused a huge natural disaster, it will take billions of dollars to counter all the news, social media posts and rumours about it. In that case it’s easier to rebrand.
I know one local IT company that has collaborated with a corrupt government. They got sued over some contracts and basically people were leaving the company. Nobody wanted to work with them anymore. In the end they’ve rebranded as they couldn’t counterbalance the negative image. They approached me with a job offer many years ago when they were wearing their new ‘hat’. After asking around I found out who they were and turned down any conversation with them.
How can you correct all this?
There was a slogan at some point: “in the name of science, question everything”. Well, I don’t want you to become paranoid, but you should question things unsupported by facts.
So first of all stop believing rumours. Take them as potential red flags and do your own research or observation.
When it comes to negative beliefs about yourself, you shouldn’t research only the facts but also try to find out “WHY” it happened. I’m putting that in caps because it’s highly important.
Let’s take a trivial example. You hold a negative belief that you are not able to use a bicycle (I told you it will be a trivial example). You’ve fallen 3x in all your attempts, therefore you have supporting evidence that you can’t do it. Brain is happy with that resolution, less things to worry about. Now, if you want to dismantle this negative belief, it’s time to re-examine the supporting evidence and dig for the root cause. Did you have proper guidance? How much time did you put into it? Are we talking about minutes vs hours? How far apart were those attempts? If they were years or even months apart, any progress would have been reset. By doing this exercise you will uncover that the so-called supporting evidence is shaky!
The reverse mechanism
You may have heard about positive affirmations. They are using the reverse mechanism of confirmation bias and that’s why they end up working. Ok, there’s a bit more to it.
beliefs -> feelings -> actions -> results
Beliefs influence how you feel about certain things, which in turn change the way you act towards those things and obviously actions drive results.
In addition: “If you hear a thing long enough, you end up believing it”. That’s why it matters what you tell your kids and what you were told as a kid.
Trick #3: one negative statement needs to be counter balanced by about eight positive ones.
Wow, so much applied psychology in a nutshell!
Back to reversing mechanisms. If you hold a negative belief you are trying to reverse, first you need to change your thoughts by simply stating the opposite. Then repeat it long enough so that it starts countering the old negative belief. As you do that, your brain will start collecting evidence to support the new belief.
You’re welcome!
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