BOMBARDMENT OF INFORMATION AND THE CONFIRMATION BIAS

Confirmation Bias is defined as:

“When people seek out or evaluate information in a way that fits with one’s existing ideas, concepts, thoughts, beliefs and preconceptions.” 

Confirmation Bias is also called confirmatory bias or myside bias. It occurs when we see new information and try to consume it, to decide whether it’s true or false.  Confirmation Bias is when we see or hear any new information and it triggers our existing beliefs, we hold on to that and share it on different platforms. We tend to ignore the piece of information which is against our opinions or judgments. 

In simple words, Confirmation bias involves favouring information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases of a person.

Today majority of the people are obtaining data and news through various Social Media platforms. Therefore, there’s a strong possibility that we might fall into false information or fake news.

Keep in mind, every story out there has a number of sides, it's better to understand all sides and then jump into conclusions. Usually, the problem not only lies in people continuously hearing or reading only one side of the story but also in how the news and information is being exhibited or presented to the audience.

Confirmation Bias also connects with our own Psychological thinking - for example – What we believe and want to hear/watch will affect when we watch/hear the related stuff on several unlimited sources. It's suggesting that we don’t recognize circumstances tangibly, but we pick up the bits of data that make us feel good or satisfied because they confirm our prejudices. A PhD Scholar describes this situation as people becoming prisoners of their own assumptions.

As it's mentioned previously Confirmation Bias is how people are gathering the information but they also influence how people are interpreting and recalling information. It’s the tendency to process the information and news by searching and interpreting information that is consistent with the existing beliefs or thoughts of the people. There are five factors of Confirmation bias:

1. Decision Making

2. Information Processing

3. Interpretation of Information

4. Self-esteem 

5. Accuracy 

Look at this example, it will clear out your confusions!

Consider the debate over lockdown during COVID 19 outbreak in Pakistan. Some people are in support of strict lockdown. They seek out news stories and opinion pieces that reaffirm the need for lockdown during the pandemic situation. When they are going to hear/read stories about lockdown in Pakistan on multiple platforms, they interpret them in a way that supports their existing beliefs.

On the other hand, there's another school of thought, who believes that lockdown will affect the poor community in Pakistan, so there should be some leniency in lockdown. Now they seek out news sources that are aligned with their perspective, and when they come across news stories or articles, they will interpret them in a way that supports their current point of view.

In our daily life, while scrolling down our screens, we get hit with a bombardment of information, and definitely we will get affected with the wrong or false information. When data, data and data is everywhere all the time, it's kind of difficult to combat the confirmation bias.  But still, there’s a chance or a hope to resist the confirmation bias, it will take only a few minutes to Google the real facts and manage to understand the difference between the truth and lies. This practice will help us to fight against the misconceptions, false information and propaganda.

We can also reduce the news intake from sources that may be transient, biased, or uninformed. In the era of fake news, it’s the only way we’ll make it out of our echo chambers alive.