|

Confirmation Bias

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

The other day I was doing some reading about “confirmation bias”, our natural tendency to process information in ways that agree with what we already believe to be true, and ignoring information that challenges those beliefs.

We see this frequently when it comes to politics, for example. People who lean one way or another on political issues, tend to get their information from sources that confirm that belief, and ignore, or outright ridicule sources that represent the other side.

As I was reading some more about it though, I started to see where this natural tendency could be very harmful for survivors. Why? Because we were taught things, and believe things, based on our experiences that simply aren’t true any more. For example, as an adult, I am not a helpless child, yet how often does stress make us revert right back to feeling like we are?

It also comes into play when we “see” things that aren’t really there. As survivors we are fine tuned to sense any kind of danger that may be waiting for us. How much of the danger that we sense is really just our confirmation bias? How many people who are perfectly trustworthy do we push away because we are simply confirming our belief that people are out to hurt us? How many opportunities do we shrink away from, because we are stuck in our belief that the world is full of danger everywhere?

If nothing else, it’s something to think about as part of your healing. Challenge those beliefs when you can, don’t just accept what you’ve believed since childhood. You may find that those beliefs are not the world you live in now.

Similar Posts

  • What’s So Toxic About Positivity Anyway?

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 3 minutes

    This is really my biggest problem. Sometimes, sadness, grief, anger, and uncertainty are entirely appropriate, so why are we telling people to ignore those emotions?

    Look at it this way, when we watched George Floyd’s death on video, we all felt something, and it probably wasn’t all that pleasant. Or, when we read the overwhelming number of deaths from COVID, we felt something. Maybe we all didn’t feel exactly the same thing, but we all felt something, and maybe most of all we felt a need to do something about it. If we had simply flipped the page and focused on what we are grateful for, we weren’t changing anything, we aren’t doing the things we need to do to keep ourselves safe and well. We are just ignoring it.

  • Cancel Culture Exists Online, It’s Just Not What You’re Expecting

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

    It’s enough to make you just give it all up and walk away.

    That, to me, is cancel culture. I know there’s a lot of talk about cancel culture and whether it even exists or not, but frankly, to me, the real canceling that goes on online is when the good, thoughtful and caring, people just walk away instead of being here and having their voices matter. Because they’re tired. They’re tired of the constant outrage, the constant anger directed at them for not doing, and believing, everything random people expect them to. The vitriol directed at them in direct messages, comments, and tweets for simply trying to have a conversation, from all sides. For not supporting conspiracy groups, for not using the correct words, for not advocating for exactly the same things, in exactly then same way. Because if you don’t “agree” with them and show your support, in clear, and often financial, ways, you are the enemy.

    Seriously, it gets old. It’s toxic. It’s exhausting. It makes you question why you even bother with this at all. I, for one, don’t need this in my life on a regular basis. No one does. So, instead of having real conversations about real issues, and doing real education, we’re walking away and letting the worst kinds of people win the internet.

    I’m tired, but I’m not ready to do that. If 19 years of working to educate people, and let anyone know that they are not alone as a survivor, or as a person dealing with mental health issues, isn’t enough for you, and you can’t understand that all of the things I do online to make this happen I do in my spare time, for free, then you can go somewhere else.

    Take all of your fake outrage and fake “facts” with you too.

  • Sharing Responsibly

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Over on my other site this morning, I wrote something about a quote I heard on Seth Godin’s podcast. It had to do with how the internet has made us all distributors now, and how, with previous distribution, there has always been a responsibility to maintain some “standards.” Whether it was a TV network, a…

  • How Much Blame Should We Really Get for not Picking up on Grooming?

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Think about it. Right now, this very second, you are reading this post because either you found the headline intriguing and clicked, or someone shared it with you and said you should read it, and you clicked. In both cases, you were persuaded by another person to do something. If you saw it on Facebook or other social media platform, there’s a Facebook algorithm watching you and trying to give you more stuff you like, to persuade you to keep coming back to Facebook, and you’re reading it on a device that you were persuaded to purchase by some other factor in your life. 

    Not to mention the fact that parents, teachers, or someone, somewhere, persuaded you to learn to read. You were persuaded, even manipulated, to go to school, study, become the sort of person who could get a well-enough paying job to own a piece of technology and pay for an internet connection, and all of that wound up with you, right here, right now. 

    You were “groomed” to do what you are doing right now. And yet, so many want to look at children, and make them responsible for knowing which persuasion is good for them and which isn’t. 

  • Socially awkward?

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

    Saw this link on Lifehack, about how to have a conversation at conferences and other events without feeling awkward. I think the key suggestion made in it is a key suggestion I’ve tried very hard to take to heart to overcome my own awkwardness and shyness. The best way to feel less awkward is to…

  • Quick Thought #13 – More Trauma Makes More Problems More Likely, and This is Trauma

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    All of the caveats aside about ACE scores that I’ve written about before, (tl;dr – Yes the more childhood traumas you’ve had, the more likely you will deal with various issues as an adult, but it’s not a set fate for everyone.) I think we can, however, accept that children who dealt with more traumatic…

6 Comments

  1. you have just made my morning. I am in a position where i am forced to overhaul every single thing i went through in childhood. I was not sexually abused in child hood. Sometimes i was verbally and physically abused. But the worst thing was that i suffered from being ignored by my parents. Even today i suffer from the feeling that others are just not interested in what i have to say. It has seriously affected me in many ways. I find that the hardest thing is fighting MYSELF on a daily basis. When the enemy is on the outside it is so easy to tackle them! But when its yourself…that is another matter altogether. I am more or less alone in this fight because my society does not encourage me or any other of its members to do introspection. Everything is always somebody elses fault. (I am Kenyan.) I know i will succeed in changing my outlook towards life- but i must admit it is a really difficult and lonely journey. I would really appreciate any more material on changing one’s self that you may have. Thank you!

    Reply

    1. Joan, take a look around, there are plenty of my own posts about healing, and the Blog against child abuse posts have lots of links to other survivors doing similar things. That’s always a good place to start, seeing what other survivors have to say!

      Best of luck! Changing your self can be difficult, it certainly requires work and perseverance! But it so rewarding when you can get beyond the world you built to protect yourself from your childhood.

      Reply

  2. Hi Mike,

    Thanks for this post. This is something that I have been aware of and have struggled with for many years. I finally feel that I have many, many experiences of good to counter-act the years of being a minor and later an adult, where there were so many experiences that validated the confirmation bias. Now I believe some very lovely and positive things about myself.

    This is a great message. Thanks so much for sharing it on the Blog Carnival. Good and healing thoughts to you.

    Kate

    http://kate1975.wordpress.com/

    Reply

  3. Hi,

    I wanted to add a few links for Joan, who posted a comment here. I hope that is okay.

    Emotional Abuse
    Child Neglect
    Grounding/Coping Skills
    Self-Soothe/Comfort Skills

    Kate

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)