My name is Maddie. I am a 20-year-old college student at Marquette University. I come from a small Wisconsin town about 45 minutes south of Milwaukee. I am also a political science major. An important topic that has come up in one of my classes is voting statistics. We have broken down the different factors that lead to a person’s choice at the polls, as well as whether they go to the polls at all. Among the different factors includes a personal favorite of mine—confirmation bias.
Confirmation bias is a person’s tendency to search for and interpret information in a way that confirm’s their own personal beliefs. It is a way of denying anything that juxtaposes an already held opinion. They will search out information that supports their own hypothesis and will either ignore, misinterpret, or devalue information that goes against it, leading to their opinion being misinformed. We see it especially around debates and elections, where some people completely ignore information from candidates from the other party.
Recommended for you
The fact of the matter is that the world is filled with people who have opinions that may not mesh well with your own. However, do we threaten to smash them with a brick because of it? Well, some of us do, and that is confirmation bias at its worst. Just because someone holds an opinion that is different than our own, it doesn’t mean they are wrong. It means they are DIFFERENT, and that is okay.
We are a country built on the idea that different mindsets can be valued. We get to wear whatever clothing we want, whether it is for religious reasons or not. We can marry the person we want to marry. And although some people think it is absolutely audacious, we are allowed to dislike our hometown and move away.
If we were to allow confirmation bias to rule our everyday lives, we would never experience anything new. We would be stuck ordering the same meal, watching the same movie, listening to the same music. Ignoring our biases allows us to be more diverse and complicated people. Although we might be happier if we ignored the idea that maybe we aren’t always right, our lives would have no color. No depth. There is a reason our high school teachers made us include information from an opposing opinion in our persuasive essays. Information from different viewpoints helps us legitimize our opinions as long as we genuinely try to understand it before tearing it apart.
I understand this is a problem that will never go away. Human beings have been dealing with confirmation bias for centuries upon centuries. I recognize my own biases as well. I like to think the spelling of my name is the correct way. I think "Harry Potter" is a great series that everyone should love. I also believe that people can easily tell when I'm using sarcasm in my articles. However, I do my best to remember that other people have opinions that do not match my own. It is why I surround myself with people of different political, religious, or social beliefs. It makes me a more well-rounded person, and it is a humbling reminder that just because I believe something doesn't mean it is right.
“We find comfort among those who agree with us—growth among those who don’t." --Frank Clark
