EOTO 2 Part 2 : Confirmation Bias

 

Confirmation Bias is defined by apa.org as "the tendency to gather evidence that confirms preexisting expectations, typically by emphasizing or pursuing supporting evidence while dismissing or failing to seek contradictory evidence". Basically people tend to seek information from sources they know share their opinions and reject other sources that might challenge their views or beliefs. 

So, Why do humans do that? And why is it harmful for society especially with the rise of social media? 

Psychologists Believe that the reason confirmation bias happens is because people put more weight and value in their own believes and that leads them to reject anything that doesn't align with their views and in most cases consider it "false" or "misinformation".

 Different aspects of this phenomenon can be seen in our every day lives, for example: Social media. 

People go on social media apps everyday and all they have access to is what someone else (a creator) Decided they wanted to share today (meaning the information itself is already bias) There is a very large amount of "information" posted on the internet but a large amount of it is money and emotion driven, brands manipulate customers on social media based on their emotions in order to make more profit, for example: Starbucks, when BLM protests started it became a trend on social media to take part in the movement and post a black screen, Starbucks on the other hand went extra and wrote a very sensitive message, they also changed their logo from green/white to black/white for a day, this gave Starbucks a lot of new followers and costumers that only started doing so because they believed that Starbucks shared their views and beliefs. You can imagine the shock when a Starbucks worker tweeted the next day: "

Why make a statement saying your employees can’t wear BLM apparel but not 24 hours later, tell them now it’s okay because you ‘stand with us.’ Pick a side. Admit you made a mistake. Don’t romanticize this movement for publicity. This is real life".

Brianna and many other Starbucks employees explained that they were not allowed to wear BLM apparel inside the stores which made it very clear that the brand only joined the cause in order to make profit. 

 one can say that people are responsible for not falling into the trap but marketing experts use very complex psychological tricks on social media to trick people and use their confirmation bias to make more money. At the end of the day people have to remember that brands care about money and most of what we see on social media isn't information, it's marketing.