Where do your beliefs and opinions come from?
People need to process information quickly to protect themselves from harm. Most people believe that their opinions are based on years of experience and objective analysis of the information they have available. Everyone thinks they are rational, logical, and impartial. We are susceptible to confirmation bias as many factors of which people are unaware can influence our information processing. Humans are better able to rationally process information, giving equal weight to multiple viewpoints, if they are emotionally distant from the issue. Another reason people show confirmation bias is to protect their self-esteem.
Here are some examples of confirmation bias:
· Not seeking out objective facts
· Interpreting information to support your existing belief
· Only remembering details that uphold your belief
· Ignoring information that challenges your belief
Humans are bombarded with information in the social world and cannot possibly take the time to carefully process each piece of information to form an unbiased conclusion. I think that human decision making and information processing is often biased because people want to feel that they are intelligent. When informationarrives that suggests one holds an inaccurate belief or made a poor decision this may make one feel he’s lacking intelligence, therefore, we tend to listen only to the information that confirms our preconceptions.
