Confirmation Bias in 5 Minutes

Summary

This video explores the psychological divide between our conscious 'writer' and unconscious 'elephant,' explaining how this dynamic leads to biases like confirmation bias. It discusses how our brains take shortcuts to process information, resulting in stereotypes and self-justification. The video uses the example of Cathleen Hartnett White's nomination to highlight how biases can affect decision-making, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and overcoming these tendencies for unbiased judgment.

Takeaways

• 🤔 Our minds are divided into an 'elephant' (unconsciousness) and a 'rider' (consciousness), where the rider is often mistaken as the one in control.
• 🧠 The divide between the elephant and the rider can lead to cognitive biases, causing us to believe we are right even when we are wrong.
• 🔍 Confirmation bias is a common type of bias where we tend to seek out and favor information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs.
• 🧐 Our brains take shortcuts to process information, leading to the formation of stereotypes and generalizations that may not always be accurate.
• 👶 We develop stereotypes based on our life experiences and societal norms, which are stored in our unconscious mind.
• 🤝 Evolutionary psychology suggests that our ability to reason evolved to support social agendas, justify actions, and defend our groups.
• 🌿 An example of confirmation bias is seen with individuals who deny climate change, only accepting evidence that supports their stance.
• 🌳 The video uses the example of Cathleen Hartnett White, who was nominated to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, to illustrate confirmation bias.
• 🏛 White's affiliations and actions are highlighted to show how personal bias can influence one's beliefs and decisions, even when they are in a position of authority.
• 💡 It's a responsibility of experts and leaders to make decisions as free from bias as possible and to admit when they are wrong or lack knowledge.

Q & A

What is the main analogy used to describe the mind in the script?

The script uses the analogy of a 'writer' and an 'elephant' to describe the mind. The 'writer' represents consciousness, while the 'elephant' represents the unconscious mind.

What is confirmation bias, according to the script?

Confirmation bias is when a person focuses only on evidence that supports their pre-existing beliefs, ignoring evidence that opposes them. This leads people to think they're right even when they're wrong.

Why does the script claim that even smart people are biased?

The script claims that being human makes everyone inherently biased, regardless of intelligence. Bias is unavoidable because the brain relies on shortcuts stored in the unconscious to process vast amounts of data.

What role do life experiences play in forming biases, as explained in the script?

Life experiences shape patterns in our unconscious mind, leading to generalized thoughts and stereotypes. For example, seeing men as leaders and women as caretakers reinforces gender stereotypes.

How does evolutionary psychology explain our tendency to defend our beliefs, even when wrong?

Evolutionary psychology suggests that humans developed reasoning abilities to defend their social agendas and actions, ensuring the survival and dominance of their groups.

What example does the script provide to illustrate confirmation bias in politics?

The script gives the example of Cathleen Hartnett White, who denies that human activity is a major driver of climate change and supports her view with selective evidence, reflecting confirmation bias.

Why do people, including experts, find it difficult to admit they are wrong?

People, especially those regarded as smart or experts, find it hard to admit they're wrong because it challenges their self-perception and the authority they’ve built over time.

How do stereotypes form in the mind, according to the script?

Stereotypes form through repeated exposure to certain patterns in life, which are stored in the unconscious. These patterns influence generalized expectations, often leading to incorrect assumptions.

What responsibility do leaders have in making decisions, according to the script?

Leaders, whether politicians, teachers, or experts, have a responsibility to make decisions that are as free from bias as possible and admit when they are wrong or unsure.

What is a key takeaway about the relationship between the unconscious (elephant) and conscious (writer) mind?

The key takeaway is that while the conscious mind (writer) tries to guide, the unconscious (elephant) often holds more influence, and controlling or changing these deep-seated beliefs is difficult.

Outlines

00:00

🐘 The Dichotomy of Consciousness

This paragraph introduces the metaphor of the 'elephant' and 'writer' to describe the division between the conscious and unconscious mind. It explains how the conscious mind, or 'writer,' is often mistakenly believed to be in control, but is actually just a guide to the 'elephant,' representing the unconscious mind. The text discusses how this division can lead to cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias, where people tend to focus on information that supports their pre-existing beliefs. The paragraph also touches on the inevitability of bias and the shortcuts our brains take to process information, leading to the formation of stereotypes.

Keywords

💡Elephant

In the video, the 'elephant' represents the unconscious mind, which is driven by emotions and deep-seated beliefs. It symbolizes the part of our brain that influences our behaviors, often without us realizing it. The elephant is hard to control, even when the conscious mind, or 'rider,' understands logical reasons. This concept illustrates how much of our thinking and decision-making is influenced by unconscious biases.

💡Rider

The 'rider' refers to the conscious mind, which we often believe to be in control of our actions and decisions. However, the video suggests that the rider only guides the elephant, which means the conscious mind can only exert limited control over the unconscious forces (the elephant). The rider represents logic and reason, yet struggles to overpower the emotional and instinctual responses of the elephant.

💡Bias

Bias is described as a mental shortcut that leads us to incorrect conclusions. The video explains that bias is unavoidable and rooted in the way our brain processes information. It is a key theme of the video, showing how bias affects both the conscious and unconscious minds, leading people to favor information that supports their pre-existing beliefs (confirmation bias).

💡Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias occurs when people seek out or interpret information in a way that confirms their existing beliefs, ignoring evidence that contradicts them. The video uses the example of a politician denying climate change, highlighting how both supporters and critics of this view filter information to reinforce their preconceptions. This concept is central to the discussion on how biases shape human thinking.

💡Unconscious Mind

The unconscious mind is symbolized by the 'elephant' and represents the part of our brain that holds automatic thoughts, biases, and deep-seated patterns. It influences behavior without the person being aware of it. The unconscious mind's influence on decision-making is a key point in the video, as it drives us to act based on biases rather than reason.

💡Stereotypes

Stereotypes are generalized beliefs or expectations about certain groups of people, often formed based on limited experiences. The video discusses how patterns in life, such as seeing men as leaders and women as caretakers, create stereotypes. These stereotypes are stored in the unconscious mind and influence behavior, even if the conscious mind knows they are inaccurate.

💡Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychology is the field that studies how psychological traits, including reasoning and decision-making, evolved to solve problems faced by our ancestors. The video suggests that humans evolved the ability to reason not for pure logic, but to advance social agendas and justify group behaviors. This helps explain why people defend their biases so strongly.

💡Self-Righteous Hypocrisy

This concept refers to the tendency for people to believe they are morally right while failing to recognize their own biases and mistakes. The video suggests that all humans exhibit this behavior, as we are often unaware of the extent to which our unconscious biases (the elephant) influence our decisions. It explains why people can act hypocritically while still believing they are correct.

💡Social Agenda

Social agenda refers to the objectives or interests that individuals or groups pursue within a social context. The video argues that reasoning evolved as a way to promote and defend one's social agenda, rather than to seek objective truth. This is why people often use reasoning to justify their beliefs and actions, even when they are wrong.

💡Climate Change Denial

Climate change denial is used in the video as an example of confirmation bias, where people selectively accept information that aligns with their beliefs. The video discusses how people, like the example of Cathleen Hartnett White, ignore or downplay scientific evidence about climate change due to their biases or affiliations with certain interest groups, demonstrating how personal and social agendas can distort reasoning.

Highlights

The human mind is divided into an 'elephant' representing unconsciousness and a 'rider' representing consciousness.

The 'rider' or consciousness is often mistaken as being in control, but it is merely a guide for the 'elephant'.

Bias is an unavoidable aspect of human cognition that leads us to be wrong.

Confirmation bias is a common type of bias where we favor information that supports our pre-existing beliefs.

The brain takes shortcuts to process information, leading to the creation of stereotypes.

Stereotypes are patterns stored in our unconscious mind that influence our thoughts and expectations.

Our brains create generalized thoughts based on life experiences, which can be incorrect.

Evolutionary psychology suggests that our ability to reason evolved to further social agendas and defend our groups.

We often find evidence that supports our beliefs rather than looking for opposing evidence.

Confirmation bias affects everyone, including the creators of this video.

Cathleen Hartnett White, a nominee for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is an example of someone with strong confirmation bias.

White's beliefs are influenced by her professional affiliations and funding sources.

Bias can be particularly strong in experts or those who have been stereotyped as smart.

It is challenging for experts to admit when they are wrong or do not know the answer.

Leadership often involves making decisions that should be as bias-free as possible.

Admitting our biases and being open to changing our minds is crucial for personal and societal growth.

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to subscribe, like, and share for more content.

Transcripts

[Music]

[Applause]

our minds are divided between an

elephant and a writer and while we often

think of the writer as the one in

control of the elephant we often forget

that the writer is only the guide we

usually call our writer consciousness

and our elephant unconsciousness and

it's the divide between them that makes

us think we are right when we are

actually wrong and guess what it doesn't

matter how smart you are or if you're

liberal or conservative you are first in

foremost human this means that you are

also bias toward yourself your beliefs

and your values bias is simply when we

think in a way that leads us to be wrong

it's unavoidable and hard to recognize

there are literally hundreds if not

thousands of different types of bias but

one of the most familiar to us is called

confirmation bias this is when for

example you see some politician on TV

denying that the climate is changing and

only legitimizes the facts that support

her or his point of view but why does

this happen and why is it in our nature

to see the evidence on only our side of

the table our brains have to understand

a shitload of data but it can't so

instead it takes shortcuts so that we

can focus on what we think are the most

important bits these shortcuts are

stored deeply in our unconscious mind

and is the reason we create stereotypes

for example when we grow up we mostly

see men as leaders in women as

caretakers think about it can you name

one female US president how about one

actor that is typecast as a stay-at-home

dad because of these life experiences

our brains create patterns and store

them in our elephants or our

unconsciousness these patterns then turn

into generalized thoughts and

expectations about most things in this

case of men and women it turns out that

in many cases these generalized thoughts

are wrong women can make pretty great

leaders and men can be amazing

stay-at-home dads but even if the writer

understands this it's still hard to

control what our elephant believes this

explains a lot about why our brains have

these patterns and why they create

stereotypes but what about why we try to

prove people wrong even when we are

wrong a theory and evolutionary

psychology says we evolved

our ability to reason as a way to

further our social agendas justify our

actions and defend the groups we belong

to why groups that work well together

often beat groups that are made up of

selfish individuals in a way we are all

self-righteous hypocrites our elephants

want us to survive so that our group

dominates part of this means we often

find evidence that supports a belief

that we already have rather than looking

for the evidence that opposes our

already held belief and everybody is

prone to this kind of confirmation bias

this video included one recent example

of confirmation biases president Trump's

nominee to lead the White House Council

on Environmental Quality Cathleen

Hartnett white miss white doesn't

believe that human activity is a major

driver of climate change and claims that

carbon dioxide emissions is good for the

environment on one side you have

millions of people that will immediately

call this bit crazy but if you ask those

disagrees why many of them won't be able

to share the evidence to disprove her

instead they will go with their gut

aka their elephant which can also be

right by the way at the same time if you

were to ask that crazy business white

why she believes co2 is good for the

environment satellites already show a

greening of the earth in part from the

very small amount of carbon dioxide

involved with using fossil fuels she'd

probably give you a list of her reasons

but wouldn't address the evidence on the

other side of the table she probably

would also leave out the fact that she

is a lobbyist for the Texas Public

Policy Foundation an organization

founded by art conservative Christian

billionaire James lenninger this is an

organization that has a mission to

deregulate markets and has been funded

by ExxonMobil Chevron and other

companies dubbed the who's who of text

polluters she might also leave out the

fact that she's a bad person and doesn't

really care about how her actions affect

others for example if she voted to build

coal plants near Dallas even when the

mayors and officials of those areas

strongly opposed it let's just say that

miss White's elephant is backed up but

because of her bias she as the writer

probably doesn't even know that

improbably thinks she's doing the right

thing and this is why she you and I are

all often wrong we forget that we can be

wrong and it's especially hard for

people that have been stereotyped is

smart their whole lives to admit that

their elephant is in more control of

them than they

as the writer and as an expert it might

be even harder to say I was wrong and

harder still to say I don't know this

white is an expert in so are thousands

of other scientists and policymakers but

as an expert politician teacher human or

whatever it's our responsibility to make

decisions and judgments that are as bias

free as possible and admit when we are

wrong or simply don't know the answer

unfortunately those in leadership are

often the ones that are least likely to

do that thank you for watching and

please subscribe like and share this

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