Out of all the aspects we have
recently examined, confirmation bias definitely affected my thoughts on
critical thinking the most. Confirmation bias, also known as the tendency to interpret
evidence based on confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories, actually
plays a large role in society. The decisions that we make are often influenced
by biases that we have already created. As we discussed in class, confirmation
bias affects all people of any age all day long. It can be as simple as a
mother believing her child did nothing wrong or a teacher treating a student
unfairly after overhearing another teacher bash this particular student.
My thinking hero is Nelson Mandela.
After learning about confirmation bias and how it influences our decisions, he
might not be as much of a hero as I had once envisioned. Mandela was a South
African activist and fought for rights, but the media could have played a large
role in my previous thought processes. I assumed that he made of all his
decisions himself and he always did the right thing to better the lives of
others. This, however, I thought due to the idea of confirmation bias and
previous thoughts that I had. The news, newspapers, articles and media as a
whole portray Nelson Mandela as an exceptionally important man, so I based my
opinion on thoughts that I heard and grew up on. Nelson Mandela himself was
most likely affected by confirmation bias and it ended up altering his decisions.
I believe he was good at constructing arguments because he was passionate and
educated on his beliefs, although they might have been affected by confirmation
bias as well. Confirmation bias significantly narrows down your thoughts and
your ability to critical think. Like the Dunning Kruger affect for example, it
is something hard to stop and consistently present in everyday life.
