{"id":13132,"date":"2022-11-30T09:06:50","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T14:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=13132"},"modified":"2022-11-30T09:06:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T14:06:52","slug":"compounding-the-awfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=13132","title":{"rendered":"compounding the awfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[It] \u201ccan often lead to bad decision-making.\u201d \u2014 Kendra Cherry with Very Well Mind<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[It] \u201cmay lead to disastrous decisions.\u201d \u2014 Margit E. Oswald and Stefan Grosjean in Explorable: Think Outside the Box<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\u2026 [It] \u201cdegrades our judgments when our initial beliefs are wrong because we might fail to discover what is really happening until it is too late.\u201d \u2014 Gary Klein Ph.D. in Psychology Today<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s \u201cit\u201d is none other than confirmation bias. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To clearly define the phenomena, let\u2019s return to the research published by Explorable, Psychology Today<\/em> and Very Well Mind, <\/em>with a little WebMD<\/em> mixed in\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out or prioritize info and perspective that supports one position or idea. It is a \u201ccognitive bias that favors information that confirms your previously existing beliefs.\u201d It is \u201cknown as selective collection of evidence. It is considered as an effect of information processing where people behave as to make their expectations come true. People tend to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses independently of the information\u2019s truthfulness or falsity.\u201d In other words, even very intelligent people hear what they want to hear, read what they want to read, and tune into the channel or site that they know ahead of time will reinforce what they want to believe. This bias is thus one of the many reasons we regularly re-publish a media bias chart. This bias is not healthy nor good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, there exist different types of confirmation bias; below are some of the most common\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/em>Biased attention:<\/em><\/strong> This is when we selectively focus on information that confirms our views while ignoring or discounting data that doesn\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biased interpretation:<\/em><\/strong> This is when we consciously interpret information in a way that confirms our beliefs.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biased memory:<\/em><\/strong> This is when we selectively remember information that supports our views while forgetting or discounting information that doesn’t.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to see how this plays out? Note how people conversed \u2014 or were unable to converse \u2014 about the recent, awful shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs. Let us do absolutely nothing to diminish the tragedy; five people lost their lives in the senseless, evil act. The resulting shaming and shouts, no less, while taking nothing from the tragedy, certainly compounded some of the awfulness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It made me wonder\u2026 as one who wishes to honor all and promote respectfulness in tragedy and celebration alike \u2014 in agreement or disagreement \u2014 did it matter where people got their news? Was there a confirmation bias that affected individuals’ ability or inability to converse?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to AllSides,<\/em> here\u2019s what the Left was saying about the shooting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n