“We see things not as they are, we see things as we are” - Anais Nin Wired into our psyche are firm beliefs (biases) of the world that we live in, they are the foundation of our perception of reality. On last check there are over 170 different biases. Our biases exist to help when there’s too much information for us to process, we need to act quickly, there’s a lot of sensory input and there’s not enough meaning. For brevity, this article will focus on the power and how to manage confirmation bias.
As we go about our lives we visually scan the environment to confirm what we already believe. As long as the world confirms our beliefs, we tolerate it. In part, our biases act as defence mechanisms, when we understand the world it creates a feeling of safety. What is confirmation bias? Confirmation biases works simply enough. If we believe “people aren’t trustworthy”, any behaviour which is an example of that resonates with us to create a confirming view of our reality. If we believe “people don’t really like me”, we fail to notice all the positive interactions that happen and any negative interaction solidifies as our strongest memory of the day. Our confirmation biases are typically emotionally rooted. Our brain can’t process the overload of information and stimulus we experience, so instead we create memories which consolidate information we see fit as necessary to remember. #mentalhealth #psychology#psychotherapy #psych101 #mentalhealthawareness #bias #cognitivebehavioraltherapy #cbt #inpsych #thoughts
