right I know you know I’m right I’ll ask
you and you’re going to tell me I’m
right I’ll also tell you you’re right
about me being right because I’m right
now we can both be happy am i right if
not I’m going to unfriend you in short
this is confirmation bias confirmation
bias is a type of cognitive bias that
involves favoring information that
confirms one’s beliefs or biases not
only does it involve the favoring of
certain information but it also alters
how people perceive and recall
information for example people who
support a certain political candidate
will be inclined to search for
information that presents the candidate
in a positive way there will also
interpret news stories about the
candidate in ways that sustain their
existing beliefs and remember events in
ways that reinforce their way of
thinking in our modern era it is easier
than ever before to fall victim to
confirmation bias an opinion just like
yours is only a matter of clicks away at
an opposing opinion is just as easy to
click away from take these news
headlines for example Trump’s plan to
dismember government from CNN Paul Ryan
encouraged by reports that millions
would lose insurance under GOP plan from
The Huffington Post savage GOP traders
blocking Trump from Infowars these
titles each target a person with a
specific bias by targeting a person with
a specific bias these media
organizations are not only getting more
clicks but are also feeding you your own
personal confirmation bias it’s common
to see people get their news from only
one new source every day they will use
their TV station or website of choice to
get their news from and they will
usually never find an article on these
websites with opinions differing from
their own this is one of the major
issues of our society today instead of
being more open-minded and inquisitive
many people would rather
here an opinion much like their own
people will just stick with their status
quo not even making an attempt to look
beyond what confirms their beliefs even
worse many people will get their news
from web sites like Reddit or Facebook
where fabricated stories lurk on every
page a study from the 2016 Kew Research
Center found that 6 and 10 Americans get
their news from social media 44% from
Facebook alone this leaves people very
vulnerable to confirmation bias websites
like Facebook will track a user searches
their likes and dislikes to try to match
them with content that they like take my
Facebook feed for example I’m a tennis
player and I love dogs so if you look at
my newsfeed you won’t see posts about
politics or news instead when I open up
my newsfeed I see posts about the latest
tennis news and funny dog videos to me
this feature is beneficial I don’t have
to actively seek out the content that I
enjoy consuming however to someone that
is more say political on their Facebook
this future could have more adverse
effects for people who get their news
off Facebook this feature essentially
feeds users bias confirming articles so
when a person thinks that they may be
choosing from a wide swath of news
coverage they’re actually choosing from
news posts that correspond what Facebook
believes is a preferred type of article
this dramatically now is the mind of
people who get their news in this
fashion they get completely isolated
from the other side of every story this
is most likely a large part of the cause
for the recent spike in polarization
amongst the American electorate from
1994 to 2014
the political climate has gotten more
and more partisan this didn’t occur
because the right went too far right or
the left went too far left it occurred
because the phenomena of confirmation
bias people on both sides of the aisle
started to get so ingrained in their
beliefs that rather than working through
problems to reach a middle ground it’s
become a my way or the highway situation
in American politics along with that
many people are actually
personally offended when their ideals
are challenged at all last year while
political tensions were running high it
was very likely that you would see a
post like you support plank in just
group of friends that food group you on
every subject is great that the issue of
confirmation bias it becomes a vicious
cycle this all seems pretty bad but the
good news is that confirmation bias can
be easily overcome it doesn’t involve
changing political views or your friends
it’s just about changing the way you
view your biases and how you collect
information the hardest change in
overcoming confirmation bias is
acknowledging that it affects you once
you come to terms with this fact you can
liberate yourself from the narrow
mindedness of confirmation bias you have
to actively seek out both sides of every
argument or story avoiding the tendency
of station ahead lines and instead
the only way to break through
confirmation bias is to read information
that is challenging to your beliefs from
reliable sources I’m not saying that you
have to stop watching a news channel or
down a favorite newspaper you just have
to do some more research into stories or
read from you sources that friend lapses
I’ll take you minutes out of your head I
think what an educated opinion will make you a better you thank you