Confirmation bias occurs when we have a given viewpoint or opinion, and the only information that we subsequently take into our evaluation, is that which confirms what we already believe – thus effectively ignoring all that of the opposing side which could be of relevance, as being viewed as immaterial, suspect, or of no import. The problem that so many of us have, is that we don’t like being wrong, ever. This means, that when we take a position, especially a position in which it is publicized and/or strongly held by us, that we will, for the most part, always remain steadfast to our position, come what may, and therein lies the rub.
While it is true that there are those things that we need to make up our mind about, and hence not be wishy-washy about – or else, we could well become someone that changes our mind, depending upon how the prevailing wind is blowing on that given day; it has to be taken into full account, though, that not everything that we so dearly believe, should forever be a closed book, never to be examined or investigated, ever again. After all, there was a time when we all believed that Santa Claus, existed, but at some point, we recognized the fallacy of that belief, and subsequently got over it, and went about our given lives.
So too, there are grave dangers for those that suffer from too much confirmation bias, in which, because they have a set opinion about something, they thus discard any viewpoints that oppose such, indicative that they are not open to a fair evaluation or re-evaluation of all that is going on. For example, we find that especially with those that are in high positions of judgment or are major decision makers, that if their minds are already made up on a given resolution or decision, that this error will thus compound upon another error, for that is the danger of not taken into full account, all of the actionable information, so required, to render or to make a fair and wisely calculated decision.
What a lot of people may not consciously recognize is that so many of us, suffer from confirmation bias, and in absence of us trying to rectify this, by first of all, acknowledging at least the possibly of that bias, and then secondly, by making needed adjustments to overcome such bias, then we aren’t going to make any real progress or improvement upon those necessary things. Recognize this well, those that are being judged for their character, for their job position, and for this and for that, should, if they are well qualified, desire to see that their merits, so of, are fairly evaluated. On the other hand, those that know that they aren’t well qualified, are the type of people, that desire to specifically deal with a biased person, and as long as they know what that particular bias so represents, they will thus try to therefore conform to what that biased person is so seeking in another.
The minimum, that we owe one human to another, is to at least listen openly to what the other person has to say, and therefore give them a fair chance to state their position, before we thus render any sort of decision, or make a response to them. Perhaps by doing so, we will end up making better decisions, so of, or at least, less biased ones.