Pen-Elayne on the Web

The Certainty of Conviction

You know the quote from Hamlet "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"? Has that fallen out of favor in the Internet age? Via Anne Zook comes a very interesting essay by Hal Hildebrand entitled Why Smart People Believe Weird Stupid Things. It's all about something called Confirmation Bias, "a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs." I think anyone heavily involved in Internet socializing (no, that's not an oxymoron) has come across this phenomenon, and many of us practice it quite religiously ourselves. I also think it has its good side and its bad side. On the one hand, confirmation bias tends to put more roadblocks in the way of substantive debate and exchange of ideas than agreeing to disagree. (At least with the latter, a form of discourse I use quite often, ideas have been exchanged before the debaters realize they're at an impasse, and they recognize that civility and friendship are more important to them than their differences.) On the other hand, when you fail to see your personal philosophies achieve the level where anyone in the major mass media is even discussing them, seeking out and finding other like-minded souls is a godsend, and it's perfectly understandable to want to spend your limited online hours socializing with those souls. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, most political ones still probably lean to the right, and my time is precious to me. Most days I can't even get through my must-read blogroll, let alone have any desire to confront bloggers who echo the same opinions I can get from the vast majority of American TV stations and newspapers. So I see confirmation bias as neither good nor evil, but just a tool like any other. I don't totally ignore the pervasive media, I don't think most Americans are able to, but I'd still rather get my headlines from Euronews or the Beeb. And I don't devalue opinions that don't agree with mine (heck, you can't be a 46-year-old Jewish woman who reads comics and believe that your tastes are the only ones that should count!) but neither do I seek to go out of my way to confront their unpleasantness. Overall, I like to think of myself as open-minded but also mindful of my blood pressure. :) How about you? P.S. Also via Anne, "That devilish, dastardly Doctor of Spin!"