Seeing What We Want to See

From "Seeing Trump Through a Glass, Darkly," by Peter Wehner, October 7, 2017

…In political debates we assume wisdom resides with us and not our opponents. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that; it’s the reason we hold the views we do.

…What’s easy to see in others is hard to see in ourselves. I can assure myself that my intellectual integrity is superior to theirs, yet in my honest moments I recognize that I struggle with these same human frailties and flaws.

I have some of the same mental habits that I’m critical of in others.

…I know, too, that I’m quick…to home in on [their] failures, to focus on the things [they do] that confirms my concerns…

…When I served in the George W. Bush White House, I believed before the war began that it was justified... [My] presuppositions caused me to ignore, much longer than I should have, the problems inherent in our occupation strategy. I didn’t question early enough the errors we made or how the situation was unraveling.

…I had been filtering out information that ran counter to the narrative I believed. …I relay all this because confirmation bias is far more difficult to overcome than most of us like to admit. We are ever in search of data that confirms what we want to believe. “Illusion is the first of all pleasures,” Voltaire said.

We’re particularly tempted by delusions if they constitute bricks in the walls we have chosen to build and to live behind. We’re also learning that there is a physiological appeal to confirmation bias (processing information that supports our belief system triggers a dopamine rush) and that our brains are hard-wired to embrace or reject information that confirms or challenges our pre-existing attitudes. Our beliefs are also often tied up with our ideas about who we are individually and our group identity. The result is that changing our beliefs in light of new evidence can cause us to be rejected by our political community. No one likes being accused of disloyalty.

…Confirmation bias is deepening political polarization, which is already at record levels. Our political culture is sick and getting sicker, and confirmation bias is now a leading toxin. It won’t be drained from our political bloodstream by conservatives lecturing liberals or vice versa. We have to begin with people in our own tribe, with people who have standing in our lives. We need to emphasize greater epistemological modesty on our side and greater appreciation for the perspectives of the other side. We have to look within and see ourselves and our limitations with fresh eyes.

To say that we all struggle with confirmation bias is not to say that some individuals don’t overcome it better than others or that some aren’t closer to seeing the truth of things better than others. Objective reality exists, truth matters, and we have to pursue them with purpose and without fear. But in our present moment, truth, including truth that unsettles us, has far too often become subordinate to justifying and defending at all costs our own, often unsound, preconceptions.

You can see that in others. But can you see it in yourself?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/07/opinion/sunday/trump-republicans-confirmation-bias.html?emc=edit_th_20171008&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57317676