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| Charles Dickens's Uriah Heep symbolizes the internal yes-man |
By Morris Dean
If you watch police procedurals on television, the chances are excellent that you've seen several in which the police are portrayed as quickly settling on one suspect and ignoring the rest.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek information that validates your existing beliefs, or to interpret, favor, or recall information in a way that does so. The tendency is stronger for emotional issues and deeply held beliefs. It reenforces confidence in your existing beliefs and can even help you maintain them in the face of contrary evidence.
One explanation for confirmation bias is wishful thinking, which is common enough to suggest that thinking is largely a matter of finding and formulating reasons for believing what you want (or need) to believe.
Well, then, how appropriate it was that The New York Times last month presented "A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving," by David Leonhardt, the managing editor of new features focusing on politics, policy, and economics, and a winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
If my little introduction above has piqued your interest in the extent, if any, to which you suffer from confirmation bias yourself, you might like to check out the puzzle.
The introduction was not meant to mislead you; if anything, you'll do better because you read it. Personally, my results were troubling and have led to some soul-searching. But I was able to take solace from Mr. Leonhardt's statement that, "If you still need to work on this trait, don’t worry: You’re only human."
And don't fail to read Mr. Leonhardt's follow-up discussion, which further explains confirmation bias and gives several real-life examples.
Here again is the link to do "A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving." Have fun!
| Copyright © 2015 by Morris Dean |
I guess you and I did the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI think I know exactly what sort of thing you did, Ed. And right you are.
DeleteI wonder how I missed this article? Anyway, I got it. I cheated, though - your presenting it as a test of confirmation bias was a red flag that the obvious answer wasn't right. Indeed, the fact that it was a test was already a warning to look for other possibilities.
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Chuck! I worried for a very brief second or two about the fact that I was tipping people off. Consider it my gift to help you feel better about the results of "doing the puzzle" (taking the quiz). I was frankly deeply chagrined by the significant confirmation bias that my own showing on the quiz evidenced.
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