Brian McLaren discusses one of the most powerful kinds of bias: Confirmation Bias.
We all have filters: What do I already believe? Does this new idea or piece of information confirm what I already think? Does it fit in the frame I’ve already constructed?
If so, I can accept it.
If not, in all likelihood, I’m simply going to reject it as unreasonable and unbelievable, even though doing so is, well, unreasonable.
I do this, not to be ignorant, but to be efficient. My brain (without my conscious awareness, and certainly without my permission) makes incredibly quick decisions as it evaluates incoming information or ideas. Ideas that fit in are easy and convenient to accept, and they give me pleasure because they confirm what I already think.
But ideas that don’t fit easily will require me to think, and think twice, and maybe even rethink some of my long-held assumptions. That kind of thinking is hard work. It requires a lot of time and energy. My brain has a lot going on, so it interprets hard work like this as pain.
It’s as if I’m presented with a new picture that won’t fit in my old frame and so requires me to build a new one. Wanting to save me from that extra reframing work, my brain presses a “reject” or “delete” button when a new idea presents itself. “I’ll stick with my current frame, thank you very much,” it says. And it gives me a little jolt of pleasure to reward me for my efficiency.
You may have heard the old saying that people only change their minds when the pain of not changing surpasses the pain of changing. That old saying is all about confirmation bias. [1]
In an episode of the Learning How to See podcast, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis speaks of confirmation bias in this way:
We are all wired by what we’ve experienced to be in search of a story with an ending … that feels like it has a completion. The stories that we gravitate to are the ones that make sense to us, stories that fit, stories that feel like they have continuity, connection to the past, where we’ve been…. Those stories that we will follow are the ones that feel true, feel like they have continuity to our past and that resonate with the trajectory of our lives. We’re looking for the story that doesn’t necessarily change our minds; we’re actually looking for the story that confirms what’s in our minds. [2]
As we seek to recognize the ways we are influenced by bias, Mclaren offers this prayer:
Source of all truth, help me to hunger for truth, even if it upsets, modifies, or overturns what I already think is true. Guide me into all the truth I can bear and stretch me to bear more, so that I may always choose the whole truth, even with disruption, over half- truths with self-deception. Grant me the passion to follow wisdom wherever it leads. Thank you. [3]
References:
[1] Brian McLaren, Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself), rev. ed. (Self-published, 2019, 2024), 15–16, e-book.
[2] Adapted from Brian McLaren, Jacqui Lewis, cohosts, with Richard Rohr, Learning How to See, podcast, season 1, ep. 1, “Why Can’t We See?,” October 5, 2020. Available in MP3 audio download and PDF transcript.
[3] Adapted from Brian McLaren, Learning How to See, podcast, season 2, ep. 1, “The Big Ditch,” July 2, 2021. Available in MP3 audio download and PDF transcript.
Image credit and inspiration: Bud Helisson, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Brazil, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The lenses symbolize how our inherent biases—like favoring what confirms what we already believe or seeing only those like ourselves—can cloud our vision, reminding us that true clarity comes from looking again and being willing to see differently.
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