Confirmation Bias

I’ve tried to write an intro to this one one too many times, so I’ll just say “Fuck It,” write whatever comes out on the keyboard, and go on till I tire. Fun times.

An Instance

This is the most common one, and the probable reason I thought to write this series in the first place. I’m going to explain this in a way we can all probably relate to. If you’re one of the more religious souls out there, consider this a trigger warning.

Say I’m a Christian – I know, this cracks me up too – and I believe in the Jewish God as most Christians do. I believe he made the world in 7 days, and that he’s still involved in creation and our day to day lives.

Now, someone comes to me and tells me that there’s a lot of evidence that shows that the world wasn’t created in 7 days, nor did every animal spontaneously erupt into existence at the same time, but that there was evolution and years of painful development.

That’s when confirmation bias kicks in most of the time. Once someone dares to tell you that your life, your beliefs, your cornerstone of being is wrong. It’s your defense, guarding you from shaking to your core.

So I speak to reason. “But the world was created in 7 days”. He shows me more evidence to the contrary on his phone. Somehow, all this valid evidence just serves to cement my belief that he’s in the wrong and I’m right.

I leave him to his foolishness, and I go home. I put the television on, watch National Geographic. They start speaking of evolution, it could be Spanish to me. I switch it over to the local church broadcast, and the priest is talking about the creation story. At this point, I could not be more engrossed. I write down every bible verse. I take every word of that sermon to heart, and I believe it to pieces.

Ending

Dear Reader, you should be able to have spotted the bias by now. I couldn’t see past what was always fed to me as truth. However, neither could the gentleman. He believed in evolution, and he couldn’t see past that to check my argument either.

Look for instances of this in your own life, and you’ll be sure to see it pop up everywhere. You can also check over at Wikipedia for a more in-depth article about this.

Thank you for reading my rant, more is coming, and even I don’t know the next subject right now. You can check out the only other post on this site as of now. See you soon, badimpadump.