We are all privileged to live in the information age.  We have an overwhelming amount of research and resources at our fingertips, but if we’re not careful, we will fall victim to an insidious condition known as confirmation bias.  Confirmation bias is nothing more than looking at the world and everything in it to find facts, details, and perceptions that confirm what we already believe to be true.  Information and diverse opinion should expand our minds not narrow our focus.

 

Confirmation bias attacks us in three ways.  First, unless we are fully aware and very careful, we become a product of information bias.  This involves only selecting reading material, media outlets, or people with whom we converse based on the fact that they will confirm the opinion we already hold.  As many of you know—thanks to high-speed digital audio—I am a voracious reader consuming, on average, a book a day.  I endeavor at least once a week to read a book by an author who holds a diverse opinion or different world view from my own.  You may consider yourself well-read, but if you only input material that confirms your existing bias, you are mentally preaching to your own choir. 
 
The second way conformation bias can overtake us is in our perception of the things we see, read, and hear.  I’ve observed people with different political opinions, world views, or religious leanings who can consume the same book, movie, speech, lecture, or other input, and both can walk away from the same experience confirming their individual, long held, pre-existing bias. 
 
My late, great friend, colleague, and mentor, Dr. Stephen Covey, often said, “First seek to understand, then seek to be understood.”  This means we should try to understand all information and expression as it was intended by the person who created it as opposed to simply leveraging it as a way to support our existing position. 
 
Finally, confirmation bias can attack our memories.  It’s hard enough for people to agree on what they are seeing much less sort through their memories to recall what they saw in the past.  Detectives will tell you that multiple eyewitness accounts of an event are among the least reliable forms of evidence.  You may have had the experience of attending a sporting event or watching it on TV when fans of opposing teams look at the same play, or even the slow motion replay, and totally disagree on the call the official made or should have made.
 
If you’re going to combat your own bias, you have to admit you have one and deal with it on every front. 
 
As you go through your day today, develop your thinking by keeping an open mind.  
 
Today’s the day! 

Author Bio

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books including The Ultimate Gift.  He is also a columnist and motivational speaker.  Follow @Stovallauthor

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