We have gone over a few methods
to determine if your views are true, and then discussed how to break down and
analyze your views. In this post, we are going to briefly cover a variety of
points to keep in mind when considering if your viewpoints are true. The points
I cover are going to be somewhat all over the board, touching on a variety of
random things. We can then start trying to convince people they are wrong.
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When is the last time you were
wrong? Not with something small like mixing up what time you were meeting your
friends for dinner, but with something that you had put a fair amount of
thought into? Something you had defended and strongly believed in? When did you
last change your mind on something you had a strong opinion on, and thought people
who disagreed with you didn’t know what they were talking about?
For most people, I suspect coming
up with an example isn’t quite so easy. This could be for several reasons. One,
you’ve never made a mistake and have never had to change your mind (unlikely).
Two, you are too stubborn to admit when you have made a mistake (possible).
Three, you made a mistake, changed your mind, and then forgot about it (probable).
To help battle this (probable)
selective memory, I find it helpful to make a list of all the large things I
have been wrong about, as a reminder that just because I’m absolutely certain
about something, in no way means I am right. Unfortunately, certainty and
reality are not as related as we would like to think. Keeping a list helps with
the selective memory, and hopefully will serve as a reminder to take a breath
and ease up—because you might be wrong.1
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What is something that is
extremely important to you? Perhaps you identify as part of a certain religion,
or political party, or some other group. If you were to fill in the blank, “I
am a _______”, what would you say? Now ask yourself “what is more important:
advancing the cause of this group, or advancing truth?” If you are a good
member of your group, you will probably think “my group does have the truth… I
wouldn’t be part of it if that wasn’t the case.” Fair. But pause for a second.
You’ve just decided that your group determines the truth. What about when it’s
wrong? If you associate truth with what your group says, how would you know if it
ever was in error? No group identity, beliefs, values, etc ever stays the
same—the conservatives of today are not the same as conservatives of a few
decades ago. Heck, liberals of the past used to advocate for eugenics. Aligning
yourself with a group and deciding that they have it right is very dangerous,
as it puts you in a position where being part of the group is more important
than what is true.
To battle this, you have to make
a commitment to what is true—and not to a group you currently identify with.
Truth has to be more important to you than your religious beliefs, your
political viewpoints, etc. You might be thinking, “Zak, I’m intelligent enough
to be able to see when something the group identifies with isn’t true.” Maybe…
but research suggests otherwise. The psychologist Geoffrey Cohen wanted to investigate the link
between an individual’s opinion and their group identity, so he rounded up
two groups of volunteers who described themselves as either strong
conservatives or strong liberals. Cohen asked the members of each group to
review and give their opinion on a welfare reform policy. The members of the
conservative group were given a policy proposed by a republican leader, and the
members of the liberal group were given a policy that had been proposed by a
democratic leader. No surprise, the conservatives all agreed with the republican policy, and then liberals all agreed with the democratic policy.
Cohen then swapped the policies
and asked each member of both groups to review them. Again, to no one’s
surprise, the members of both groups found that the policy proposed by the
other party was terrible. The policies were described as immoral, impractical,
unrealistic, etc. Finally, Cohen asked the members of both groups if they had
reached their conclusions about the policies because of the details of the
policy itself, or because of the group the policy was associated with? Everyone
scoffed at the suggestion that their opinion of the policies would have
anything to do with the group associated with it—their conclusions were based
solely on the details of the policy. Both groups agreed, however, that the
OTHER group would definitely fall for such group-think silliness.
Well, surprise surprise! The
policy that the conservatives had first reviewed and agreed with was NOT from a republican—but from a democrat. Likewise, the liberals had actually reviewed
and approved of a policy from a republican. Cohen had tricked everyone into
doing what they both claimed they would never do—support a policy simply
because of which group they viewed the policy to be associated with.
Your social identity is a HUGE
source of bias. And the more you associate with groups that confirm your
beliefs, the more difficult it will be for you to change your mind if you come
across disconfirming evidence. The stronger you associate with the group, the
more likely you are to dismiss evidence, rationalize it away, or just ignore
it.
There are two ways to try and prevent being misled in such a way. First,
don’t identify with a group—just be you. Soon as you decide you are part of a
group, you will want to defend that group, and defending the group, rather than
defending what is true, is a huge misstep.2 Rather than being “Zak
the liberal atheist”, it’s better to just be Zak, and agree that atheism
reflects certain views I have, and that my political views tend to fall on the
liberal side of things. Like with the Sam Harris quote, don’t join a tribe.
That brings up to the second step: if you do find yourself in part of a tribe
(group), such as being a registered democrat, remind yourself of aspects of that
group that you don’t identify with (or even actively disagree with). This will
help you keep a skeptical sense about you.
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Next up is the concept of
Illusory Superiority, which is the tendency for people to overestimate
everything about themselves. Compared to others, people tend to view themselves
as being healthier,
better
looking, better
drivers, more
popular, having
happier relationships, etc. One study found that 90%
of professors polled rated themselves as above average teachers. Of that
90%, 65% rated themselves in the top 25% for teaching ability. Something is
clearly askew!3
To make matters even worse,
people also tend to view themselves as being more rational and less prone to
blind spots than others! In a study
with over 600 participants, only one person stated that she felt she was more
prone to biases than average. Some people thought they were just as biased as
everyone else, but a whopping 85% claimed that they were less prone to bias
than everyone else. You might think “I am calm, I don’t freak out, I listen to
points being made and don’t fall for rhetoric. I am absolutely more critical
and less biased than your average person.” Maybe you are. But it’s more likely
that you’re falling for the Bias Blind-Spot and just don’t know it. Simply put,
“I am not biased” is exactly what someone blind to their biases would say.
To add one more layer to this,
when people differ on opinions, everyone starts accusing the other party as
being biased, but view themselves as the rational deliberator. “You believe in
Global warming!? That’s just because you listen to libtards and shill
scientists. Go watch Fox News, check out these Breitbart articles and get off
the fake news train.” On the other hand, “You think vaccines are GOOD!? Of
course the scientists who are in Big Pharma’s pocket would say that. You should
listen to what Natural News and the Food Babe say—they do their own research,
and aren’t corrupted by the system.”
Everyone is biased—EVERYONE. It’s
just a part of being human. But with a little practice, and knowledge of how
blind spots work, we can take a step in the right direction of being a little
less biased than before.
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In conclusion of this section, remember: keep a list of
things you’ve changed your mind about to remind yourself that you’re not as
omniscient as you’d like to think. Reject the desire to identify as part of a
social group—especially groups with strong ideological foundations (political,
social, religious, etc)—just be YOU. Lastly, always keep in mind of how biased
you are about everything!
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1. The two things I have been most
certain about—bet my life on certain—turned out to be wrong. Both instances
involved women I thought I would eventually marry. It’s no coincidence that I
was so certain, seeing that I was heavily emotionally invested in both
relationships. The more emotion involved, the easier it is to be convinced of something,
even if you shouldn’t be.
Of course, one might argue that
relationships are a whole different ball game, seeing as they are based
primarily on emotion. That’s fair. We talk about love in absolute terms, and I
can attest that having those feelings completely makes you believe that you
will be together forever, etc. Several years ago, the musician Katie Melua changed the
lyrics to one of her songs to reflect more scientific accuracy. The results
were quite amusing, simply because we never hear people speak about love in the
language of science.
Don’t take this to mean that you
should be emotionless when it comes to decision making. Contrary to what was
once thought, some emotion can be
very helpful in making decisions. People who are sociopaths and don’t let
emotion factor into their reasoning are unable to make ethical decision.
Likewise, people with brain damage to areas of the brain that regulate emotion struggle
to make even the simplest of decisions, such as “when should I schedule my
dentist appointment: Wednesday or Thursday?” They tend to get bogged down in
the minor logical details (such as “what will traffic be like on both days?
Will it be different?”) and can’t just say “Thursday will be fine.”
2. The ease of getting people to
align with groups, even arbitrarily defined, is extremely easy. Researchers have
found that dividing people by shirt
color, or even a flip of a coin, will produce hostility towards the other
group (this is called Minimal Group Paradigm). Research has found that groups will even do things
that help create a strong definition between them and the other groups, even when
doing so hurts their own group!
3. Most of the research on Illusory
Superiority have been done in the United States. There is some evidence that
such an effect may be caused by culture to some extent. Reason being, there is
evidence that Asians tend to view themselves as lower in ability than the
rest of the population.
