You align to intelligence or emotion – HR message from “confirmation bias”

“Confirmation bias” or “myside bias” refers to how human mind always goes after its belief system to collect evidence to support the existence of such belief systems. Even when the belief system is wrong, lacks luster, proof, sheen, and shine, still people accumulate and gather proofs to support its continuous existence. This attitude of ‘confirmation bias’ is very common with people in corporate across the world.

The question is whether one having such approach and attitude is right or wrong? The absolute truth of every life is that ‘right can often go wrong and wrong can become right’. The statement may appear confusing and meaningless. The meaning of the meaninglessness is only is the real meaning of life most people adopt or follow.

Only when we have some belief system or concept or views or opinions or understanding or expectation or desire, we can proceed further in life. Only when we move towards fulfilling and meeting our desires, we become either achieve or disheartened or disappointed or despondent person due to failure in achieving the above. So is our journey with the set of belief systems, concepts or opinion or understanding etc.

What really differentiates the corporate man from animals in the jungle in the above context? Animals do make “confirmation bias” more often than man. They fear their predators the most. Always they go on watching, carefully listening to every sound to check the presence of a predator and also use both the faculty of smell and sound. They believe that there is always danger from predator and, therefore, the predator might attack them at any time.

The above belief system, however, true it might be or need not be relevant in the given ecosystem (predators may not be there or may be in fewer numbers etc.,). But most of the prey animals never cease from the above practice of making “confirmation bias”. Because they believe that their life worth more than carrying the “confirmation bias” and hence they carry the above bias, however, meaningless or stupid it may be. Maybe only due to such “myside bias”, many prey animals easily escape the predator. In this case, wrong in most instances goes right.

If we compare the above with human life in corporate, most people in corporate do carry several “my side biases”. Like prey animals in the jungle, they do gather several pieces of evidence to support the above. But the only difference is that they never escape or free from it.

Prey animals use ears, eyes and nose to detect the predator and move to a safe place and immediately resume their business of food gathering. Whereas the corporate man after collecting evidence to support their “confirmation bias” live with it, start analyzing and interpreting the data beyond the stretchable scope and extent and become either sorrowful or revengeful. Unfortunately, both emotional states never allow the people to be happy and peaceful. In this case, the right always goes wrong.

Imagine, unless we have reasonable “my side biases” we cannot progress and prosper in life. But unfortunately, we are not willing either to discard our concepts or belief system or opinion etc., if our evidence doesn't support them.

Further, instead of believing them at the intellectual level, we give emotion, i.e. we deeply love our belief system or opinion or concept and that is why even if they are found to useless and meaningless, we don’t discard them. A right feeling i.e. having reasonable “my side biases” only has put a man into a wrong state – a state full of sorrow, tyranny and ravage and revenge.

A wrong become right, if we align with our intelligence and instead if align to our emotion the right might go wrong.

Dr S Ranganathan