What Is Confirmation Bias? (Why You Must Question Your Questions)7 min read

In a world interconnected by the internet, millions of opinions and “truths” get thrown about, each backed up strongly with (or without) real evidence, and that is why we need to understand what is confirmation bias. And, just to be on the safer side, we would take a step further to question our questions, and maybe make the world a better place while at it.

Would you believe in what you believe if you were the only one that believed in it

Kanye west

What Is Confirmation Bias?

Confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation (or proof) of one’s existing beliefs or theories.

It is really tricky because we learn by patterns, and that makes us particularly vulnerable to lies when they fall into an already existing pattern. Worse, these patterns are often created by our own questions

Our questions are usually designed to give us the answers we are seeking – the truth we want. And, as we made mentioned earlier, there are a lot of “truths” out there, so if you look hard enough, you would surely find one for your biased questions

Finding a “truth” and believing it’s the general “truth” is also dangerous. It is dangerous because it blocks your ability to see other people’s perspectives or empathies with them.

If my truth is already ultimate why bother search for what is true? Why explore? Why think? Why do anything? Even if my truth is killing me and squeezing the life out of me

This is now the realm of Religious beliefs – believing without ever bothering to question the questions that lead to the said truth.

Why You Should Question Your Questions

What is most important is what is real, helpful, and needful… not what you think is true

…thanks to the internet, we now have a huge pile of rubbish (disguised as truths)

No matter how shitty my idea or thoughts may be, there would always be people to support me.

Just dear google something totally contradictory to what you believe and get ready to shock yourself as Google returns more than a Thousand-results supporting the idea

…the question changes the truth

The thing about confirmation bias is that the believer would find it almost impossible to conceive the fact that there could be anything alternate or contrary to what they believe. so, when they go looking for answers to their questions, they make a critical error of asking the wrong questions.

Your questions begin to morph in such a way as to provide answers that you want to find.

For instance, the Query history of a religious fellow would most likely be “top 10 undeniable reasons God is good all the time”, and as expected she would receive a plethora of such “undeniable reasons”

But what happens when a non-religious fellow search for “top 10 unshakable reasons that God is evil”. I would let you go look for the answer to that

At a point, we all must realize that the questions we ask are more important than the answers we get.

Dick David

Ask The Right Question

Focus on what is helpful, because there are billions of people on the planet who in more than one sick and twisted way have arrived at a “truth”, which is, in fact, true in their lives but totally untrue and unhelpful in your life…at least not in most situations.

Relationship quotes on social media are notorious for this bias. They claim all men are this and all women are that. And, looking closely you’d find this true in their lives

But if you ask a question like, “why do people end up with shitty partners?”, you’d be blown away by the eye opening truths you’d find

So, they are right, all the men or women in their lives are shitty, but it doesn’t really apply to you. it is not true for you.

This applies to so many areas of our lives

The way you are to act when in proximity with the cops in New York is totally different from the way you respond to the Cops in Nigeria – you got to be wise not to generalize because you could end up in a big smelly shit hole.

Fuck The Truth

Many truths we hear are garbage, for instance

There is this theory about time, which goes this way

Time doesn’t exist, clocks exist, time is just an agreed upon construct.

Anonymous

Time is indeed a construct, but that truth is useless (especially when you try to present it as a way to mock the concept of time – to say clock vendors just want a quick buck).

…what’s most important is that the construct enables us, humans, to be productive. That’s of course, apart from it being rooted in scientific calculations of the rotation and revolution of the earth…

So even if the time may be a construct, it is helpful thus needful, thus desirable, and useful.

only seek what is helpful and needful.

everyone has their own opinions, don’t listen to that, rather seek statistics and facts whilst bearing in mind that statistics and facts may vary from place to place.

Stand firm in reality and what is helpful. Base and begin your questioning from there, and disregard anything to only serves to make you feel good – don’t try to confirm your biases – question that question.

The fear that makes us hope that what we believe in is not false and that who we believe in is perfect is the danger of the truer “truth”.

ask yourself, “Am I believing this and acting this way because every other person is acting this way?”

when seeking the truth, pause and ask yourself, “why am I even asking these particular set of questions?” and “even if this is the truth, is it really true in my circumstance?”

Question Even The Unquestionable And Infallible

I know this piece (by now) might have offended a few, but consider this, what if the “truth” that was assured was quite different fromthe reality you’re living?

Religious people hold on to the truths of Religious books for guidance, but another truth is that no singular religious book covers all the questions of modern-day life.

Your truth may be right, but maybe you should reexamine it, especially when statistically and obviously it is ruining your life and that of everyone around you. Maybe reality has changed, maybe you no longer have to sacrifice virgines

*coughs* suicide bombers take note

The Formula For False Truths

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it…

Goebbels

the wonderful thing about words is that they just have to be believed to be considered true, they don’t even have to be true.

They just have to be believable

And, the sad thing is, there are lots of ways to make a statement believable

Skinny girls in bikinis drinking coke mean coke is good for their hot sexy body, right? Well I think overweight people know too well it’s not

The fact that something is seen, heard, felt and generally known, do not make it true, not even close. In fact, the more people believe something, the more you should investigate – the more you should even question the questions you might use in your investigation.

Because, just like our ancestors who lived in clans, and the buffalos that roam in herds, we humans are vulnerable to following the crowd, and that sometimes leads to the entire herd falling into a ditch, and you don’t want that

Be careful my friend, for the world is full of lies disguised as truths…