What is the confirmation bias…

Explaining the political discourse and cultural climate in America….

As humans we are subject to many different types of biases. One such bias is called the "Confirmation Bias". This inherent bias causes us to seek out information that confirms are previously held beliefs, while ignoring or devaluing information that may conflict with our views. In addition we also tend to over value the legitimacy of information that supports our beliefs.

So why do we do this?

One theory is involves the nature of beliefs and how they are encoded within the brain. Beliefs are essentially statistical patterns neuronal data firing within the brain. Collections of data that are essentially contagious, and transfered or passed down from one organism to another. As these myths and beliefs are spread throughout our environment, the patterns repeat within the brain, solidifying them deep within our neural circuitry.

As new patterns are introduce within the brain, the mind is forced to fire in different ways, counter intuitively to previously engrained patterns. This causes the brain to experiences a type cognitive resistance relative to it's preferred lower resistant default patterns.

Over the course of our lives, the brain developes a biological preference for more common patterns which have forged it's development, over new patterns which challenge it to adapt and change. This can explain why people become "set in there ways" throughout life and why we experience such psychological adaptions as the confirmation bias.

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