Confirmation bias will affect the way you think in many ways. The beliefs that you have embraced will have an impact on the decisions that you will make. The decisions that you will be making will largely depend on what you believe. For instance, if you believe that it is good to live a healthy life, then you will prefer to buy healthy snacks over junk foods. Confirmation bias will also affect the people you choose to communicate with. The same case applies to your career. You will have certain perceptions that will hinder you from succeeding in life.
How Confirmation Bias Affects You
● Seeking Information
One of the main ways that confirmation bias will affect you is through the way you seek for information. You should realize that your biases will influence the perceptions that you have about the world around you. Consider a scenario when you are at home feeling bored. It is likely that you will want to waste time on social media. Scrolling through the pictures of your friends on social media will give you the impression that other people are enjoying life. Comparing such exciting lives to yours, you will gain the impression that you live a boring life. So you develop an assumption that you are a loser. There is nothing good that comes out of you. Already, you have developed some level of biases about yourself and the life you live.
Your biasness prevents you from feeling happy about yourself. Therefore, you choose to laze at home the whole day feeling bad about yourself. This shows that you opted to seek information that confirms the beliefs you have embedded in your mind. Ultimately, this affects your productivity.
● Interpreting Information
Similarly, confirmation bias will have an impact on how you choose to interpret neutral information. Your interpretation will often favor your beliefs. Take an ordinary example of someone falling in love. Well, it will be easy to assume that you are in love because you choose to see your partner as beautiful and kind. There are no flaws that you will see since you choose to only see the good side of the other individual.
Interestingly, when things fail to work, you only see the worst side of the individual you once loved. There is nothing good that you will see in them and you will end up regretting why you met them. In this situation, you should notice that it is the same person that you are dating. So what changed? It is the perception you have that changed how you view things.
● Remembering Things
Confirmation bias will also affect your memories. The beliefs embedded in your mind will influence how you recall things. For instance, when playing soccer the end result is that there is always a team that will win. If you asked people about a specific game, they will have different opinions about how the game was played. Some will argue that a particular team was better than the other. Others will say that the referees were not fair. Essentially, confirmation bias is what affects our memories.
Overcoming Confirmation Bias
It will not be easy to succeed in life if you spend most of your time seeking clarification about your beliefs. If you think that you’re always wrong, confirmation bias will only drive you to seek evidence to confirm that you will never be right. This means that you will always develop a negative attitude about yourself and your life. Below are ideal solutions to help you overcome confirmation bias.
● Approach Life with Curiosity
Most people pay too much attention trying to be right in what they do. Often, they will want to work to prove themselves right among other people. Sadly, this only leads to stress and depression when they are wrong. To avoid this, it is imperative that you approach life with curiosity. Instead of trying to find perfection in everything that you do, why don’t you enjoy what you do and embrace the experience that comes with it?.
The advantage gained here is that you will want to try things out without focusing too much on whether you will get it right or wrong. This means that you will not be afraid to engage in business because you fear failing. Rather, you will want to establish a business and encourage yourself that you will learn something from it. Consequently, you will fill your mind with positive energy about everything that happens to you.
● Think About Thinking
Overcoming confirmation bias also demands that you should be aware about your thoughts. Your self-awareness will help you recognize when you are formulating assumptions based on your beliefs. It is important that you learn how to recognize these thoughts and prevent yourself from believing that they are true. For instance, when browsing through the internet, it is easy to come across information that will leave you thinking, “Aha, this defines the choice I make in life!” Such assumptions will only deter you from living a happy life. Ensure that you separate yourself from the cognitive biases that you will be developing from time to time.
● Understand Varying Viewpoints
Having different viewpoints about something will improve your decision-making. It is important that you learn about the distinct mental models and how they can help you succeed in life. Varying mental models will give you an opportunity of looking at the world around you from different lenses. For that reason, you stand a better chance of making the right choices. The more you make smart decisions in your life,the easier it will be to succeed.
Clearly, confirmation bias will influence how you view the world around you. Overcoming confirmation bias might not be easy since your mind will always want the easy way out. However, when making big life’s decisions, it is worthwhile that you comprehend how such biases can prevent you from making the right decisions. Your awareness will guarantee that you recognize your thoughts and separate yourself from them. They are just thoughts and assumptions and they should not define how you live your life.
