Tackling The Confirmation Bias Beast

Confirmation bias is a natural human tendency to value and believe information consistent with our existing beliefs. It’s often based on an emotional connection to a person or an idea, rather than one based on a rational consideration of the objective facts. And even though confirmation may be largely unintentional, it can have a devastating impact on our personal and professional decision-making capabilities.

“What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.” This quote from Warren Buffet nicely sums up the concept of confirmation bias. Perhaps another way to say it is “Don’t confuse me with the facts.”

Confirmation bias runs on a parallel track with the explosion of information sources made possible by the internet and its plethora of social media platforms. Any individual can find some website, blogger or social media influencer whose views align with their own. This allows smaller groups of people to form armed camps around their views and makes it more difficult for policymakers — and advertisers — to identify the “persuadable middle” for their messages.

Wrapping yourself up in information that confirms your existing beliefs is warm and comfortable. Setting your long-held beliefs aside and considering new information can be frightening, if only because it comes with the possibility of having to admit you were wrong.

Steve Coats, managing partner of International Leadership Associates, a development, education, and consulting firm, takes a deeper dive into confirmation bias in his “Human Factor” column in the March/April issue of The Financial Manager, the publication for MFM members. Coats explains confirmation bias, ways he has seen it in play and how by actively recognizing and addressing our own tendency to practice confirmation bias, we can improve the ways we interact with others and free ourselves to grow — both personally and professionally.

Coats likens confirmation bias to a car’s need for a clean air filter: in order for your car to run optimally, it needs an unimpeded flow of clean air through the filter. People, too, need an unobstructed stream of accurate and relevant information into their brains in order to make rational and smart decisions. “Yet somewhere between our ears and our brains, we all have a message filter that gets clogged and literally blocks a lot of the valuable information striving to get through,” he says. How does confirmation bias take root in our lives?

Here’s an example: During your life you read, were told or otherwise came to believe that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. Whenever you come across a person who’s both left-handed and creative, you chalk it up as “evidence” supporting your already-established belief. You might even look for further “proof” that backs up this belief while discounting examples that don’t support this notion.

Coats points to common behaviors or red flags that indicate confirmation bias. The first behavior is when individuals seem much more concerned with proving why their point of view is correct rather than truly understanding the opponent’s perspectives. We’ve all been in arguments that seemed like monologues rather than meaningful dialogues. There’s a joke in here somewhere about litigators, but I’ll save that for another time.

The second red flag is when an individual presents you with conflicting information and you purposely ignore or disparage it in order to maintain your beliefs. Common indicators of this behavior are people rolling their eyes, walking away or throwing their hands up in frustration.

Rather than weaken when fatigue or complacency takes hold, confirmation bias can often become worse. I mentioned in my last column my fear that people would grow weary of the awful news around the invasion of Ukraine. While this continual stream of stories can make us feel anxious, angry, and depressed, they can also confirm our confirmation biases about Putin, Russia, Ukraine and anything else related to the attack. We may think all Russian soldiers are evil because they’re carrying out Putin’s wishes. But I read a story recently that Russian soldiers in Ukraine believe they were duped into the war.

Fortunately, Coats offers a formula for dealing with confirmation biases:

• The first step, as you might guess, is to acknowledge you carry them.
• The second is to accept the fact that confirmation biases will rear their heads whenever you address issues that tap into your emotions (and it’s easy to recognize those psychosomatic symptoms when your ire is raised).
• Third, identify a few people who you fully trust, but who also view specific issues differently than you do, and allow them to call you out when you ignore information that challenges your beliefs. If you truly trust these individuals, you’ll be more likely to fully listen to, and accept their perspectives, even if they’re hard to take in.

Coats goes a bit deeper and challenges his readers to address when he considers the second primary factor that can clog our “message filters”:  What is it that we actually fear from carefully listening to and considering a contrary point of view?

He holds that when you try to ignore or outtalk a different viewpoint, you may actually be afraid something the other person might say could change your mind on the issue. Are you fearful you might be proven wrong? Afraid you will appear weak or exposed? That your beliefs are not based on facts, but on feelings?

As pride goeth before a fall, our desire to be right can stand in the way of seeing we’re wrong and block our progress of knowledge. The answer is to let more information in — even if it’s conflicting — and allow it to be discussed in the open. That will always result in some sort of learning, even if you don’t ever fully agree with that stance.

If you make a concerted effort to objectively understand others’ viewpoints, it may enable you to appreciate the other person’s perspectives in the same light as your own. And that may open new pathways of knowledge for both parties.

Perhaps we’ll have the opportunity to see mindful listening and response in action when media financial professionals from all sectors of the industry gather at MFM’s annual Media Finance Focus conference, taking place in person from May 23-25 in Tampa, Fla. “Blue Skies Ahead” offers plethora of informative sessions, distinguished keynote speakers, interactive industry roundtables, networking events, and an exhibit hall showcasing the latest industry products and services. I can’t wait to meet many more of our members and guests.

Joe Annotti is president and CEO of the Media Financial Management Association and its BCCA subsidiary, the media industry’s credit association. He can be reached at [email protected] and via the association’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.