There is a fascinating list of cognitive biases on Wikipedia that we as humans all suffer from without realising. If we want to get our thinking straight about any subject then we need to be aware of our biases and aim to formulate tests that remove our tendency to prejudice the outcome in favour of a preferred result. To help achieve this in medicine they use randomised double blind trials for potential new treatments where neither the practitioner nor patient knows if they are administering or receiving the real treatment or a placebo. In addition medical trials have to be registered before they are started so that there isn't a publication bias towards those trials that give positive results – negative, or null, results are just as important.
The specific bias I want to consider briefly here is known as confirmation bias. We are susceptible to this bias when we seek to reinforce an existing view by looking for confirmatory evidence or interpreting evidence in the light of what we already believe while reducing or ignoring the volume, meaning or weight of counter evidence. We like to confirm our pre-existing views in order to reduce the painful cognitive dissonance we may otherwise feel. But if we want to find truth what we should be doing is challenging those views, learning something by attempting to falsify them and moving on if it turns out we were wrong in our earlier thoughts. This is easier said than done since finding ourselves to be wrong about something, especially something as significant as a worldview, hurts emotionally so we tend to protect ourselves and shy away from looking for the errors in our cherished beliefs. However, it is only once we let go and open ourselves up to alternative conclusions that we can begin to move (if necessary) towards a more reasonable, and hopefully a more truthful, understanding.
Belonging to a group of like-minded people also acts to increase confirmation bias and reduce cognitive dissonance by communal reinforcement and shielding exposure to alternative views and additional evidence, while also trusting that others in the group are right (rather than a true specialist) about a subject that we know little about ourselves.
This doesn't mean that being cognitively biased or belonging to a group of people who share our views automatically means those views are false. But we should be more cautious of them and seek to understand why people, especially specialists who subscribe to the consensus view in their field, hold views counter to ours rather than dismiss them lightly. We should try to understand the evidence and reasoning of why they hold their view. We also need to be aware that the consensus of specialists changes over time as new evidence is brought to light so what was once thought of as ‘true’ isn't necessarily still thought of as ‘true’.
Consequently I try not to be too attached to my views, preferring instead to adopt a flexible approach that I can mould around reality as it becomes increasingly well known.
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