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There is no question that the human mind is a bundle and a burden of bias. Believing what we want to believe or relying on false memories or placing blame on others are all ways we gravitate toward what we have been taught throughout our lives. These biases make us comfortable, and most of all, avoid stress and anxiety.
Confirmation and anchoring biases
We all tend to listen to people, leaders, or news sources who agree with our line of thinking and confirm our own bias. For instance, we watch Fox News because those talking heads give us evidence that what we want to believe is indeed true, or CNN because they criticize the demons that we already know are demons.
Most of us tend to only read or belong to groups who believe how we do about everything from gun control to abortion to climate change. We may even refuse to listen to other viewpoints or to consider other ideas in a logical way. Why can’t we all be more open minded?
Critical thinking is hard work
Considering other ideas, especially those that do not line up with our personal values, is outside our comfort zone. Isn’t it easier to listen and digest information that we already believe than to go through the mental gymnastics of considering other viewpoints? This requires critical thinking – something that many of us, frankly, are not good at.
Another reason for clinging to what makes us comfortable is because it confirms our own viewpoints, which can be esteem building. If what I believe is actually the right way to believe, based on my own values, then I am the smartest person in the room, right?
This attitude is our own ego getting in the way of being open to other opinions.
The weight of an anchor
An anchor bias takes hold when we allow ourselves to be heavily influenced by the first thing we hear or understand about something or someone. For instance, when a doctor insists on or leans toward her initial diagnosis, despite new evidence that points to another possible cause, she is anchored in bias.
The danger with the anchor bias is how it closes off the mind to alternative explanations. Anyone selling or buying a home may have a price in mind, for instance, without considering variable information of the marketplace or the timing. When we get too entrenched in an anchor of understanding, we can become pigeonholed in our thinking.
Hindsight or misremembering biases
Often referred to as “I knew it all along,” the hindsight bias is in action when we claim to predict something after it has happened. Common examples are believing we knew who would win a game after it happened or claiming we knew the sex of the child, without any prior knowledge, before they were born.
We all tend to believe we can predict the future, which can make us overconfident and lead to risky behavior. Anyone with a gambling addiction can tell you about the problem with overconfidence in one’s ability to “see the future.” We are all guilty of believing we intuitively know the outcome before it happens, to one degree or another.
Winning the odds
Our tendency to overestimate our ability to see into the future can be a humbling experience, but it can also teach us valuable life lessons about winning the odds, or the likelihood of a possible outcome. To some degree or another, we all use this deductive reasoning in our everyday lives.
Memory and memoir
Our memory can be faulty.Any creative nonfiction writer will tell you that their recollection of the past may not perfectly align with other’s memory of the same history. There are many things that can cause this, from personal biases to hearing other versions of the same memory or being influenced by later events.
We may even change our recollection of a past incident after new information about a person or circumstance comes to light. Unfortunately, when we misremember something that happened, it can lead to incorrectly identifying a criminal suspect or wrongly maligning a family member or coworker.
Actor and halo effect biases
If we are the main actor, our own protagonist in a situation, we tend to blame any bad outcome on other people or circumstances. Whether it is a botched test or a failed relationship, it’s easier to point the finger at another person or some other force at work than to turn the lens back onto ourselves.
On the flip side, if we’re the observer in a situation, we tend to blame a bad outcome on the other person involved, instead of on the circumstances at hand. Maybe the other person did not study hard enough for the exam or they were too demanding of their partner or spouse to make the relationship work.
It is a human tendency, and much easier, to blame the person in the unfortunate situation than to consider other forces at play. And let’s be honest, sometimes we feel better about ourselves when we see other people fail.
Halo of first impressions
The halo effect is our tendency to believe someone is better or smarter or kinder because of the way they look. There are countless examples of confident and likable politicians we once considered more intelligent than they actually turned out to be. We tend to form first impressions based on a person’s attractiveness and confidence rather than intelligence or competence.
It is always easier to believe, even insist, that our first impression was indeed the right impression than to look back and admit we may have been wrong about someone. This is an example of cognitive dissonance at play—the uncomfortable feeling we get when we hold conflicting information. When we are forced to accept that we were wrong, it can be a tough pill to swallow.
Self-serving biases
Many of the biases we carry are self-centered because they confirm that we are better or smarter, that our beliefs are realer or truer than others’ beliefs. Biases can be dangerous to our personal lives and to society because they limit viewpoints and make us less tolerant of others. And when we lean toward intolerance, we lean toward prejudice and hierarchical thinking.
The prejudice of othering
“Othering” is used to describe people’s tendency to believe the “us vs. them” mentality. It is the superiority of belonging to the in-group. When we believe we are part of a perceived higher position, it makes us feel special—and consider others as socially inferior.
Maybe it’s the way others express themselves or look, or that they simply don’t conform to the social norms of our privileged in-group. This behavior stamps outsiders as inferior and less deserving of respect. Exclusion mentality plays a huge role in discrimination and prejudicial thinking and treatment.
Stoking fear and anxiety
We have all felt “othered” in our lives because of our age, our gender, our job, our economic status, our political affiliation, our religion, our race, or countless other reasons. If we lack information about another person or group, we tend to make assumptions about them or can even perceive them as a danger.
Politicians use othering to stoke fear and anxiety. By targeting minorities, they are empathizing with our hidden, and often unrealistic fears that others are dangerous and a real threat to our jobs, our way of living, or our family. Sadly, this intolerance can justify inhumane actions toward outside groups.
Back to confirmation bias
When we only listen to people or ideas that align with our personal viewpoints, it limits our tolerance to listen to others and makes it impossible to consider that there may be another way of thinking about something or somebody. Any of us who have ever had to admit we were wrong can understand how humbling, and even humiliating, this can be.
Humans have a natural tendency to put people in categories based on differences. If we have mistreated someone in the past, based on our own biases, we might even continue othering or ostracizing that person or group because it makes us less shameful of our past behavior.
Letting the light in
If we believe we belong to a better gender, a better religion, a better political party, a better social status or a better race, we are limiting our ability to communicate and collaborate as a person, a family, a community, and nation. We can all benefit from dropping the biases, letting other viewpoints in, and listening.
Instead of being the loudest in the room, effectively silencing or oppressing other viewpoints, we can become better people by opening our minds and listening for a change. Let other thoughts in and we may find that the light comes in with it, too.
Cognitive Bias List: 13 Common Types of Bias (verywellmind.com)
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