I grow more convinced each day that one of our biggest battles, in our organisations and even society as a whole, is with Confirmation Bias.

Confirmation Bias is when we unconsciously look for, interpret, and remember information that backs up our own beliefs or values, and downplay information that doesn’t.

It’s all around us and has likely grown worse with the rise of social media. We create “filter bubbles” by following only what we like, and recommendation algorithms make this even easier to do.

Recent events like Covid, Brexit, and even Twitter’s rate limiting over the last few days, show how people selectively use information to back our view.

This also happens at work, especially in “them and us” cultures between teams. A common example I see is between commercial and development teams:

Development says, “Commercial sell new features without asking, make unreasonable demands, and don’t care about tech.”

Commercial says, “Development take too long, only care about the tech stuff and don’t care about the business being successful.”

In both cases, we tend to amplify the information that backs our view and ignore what doesn’t. This makes our biases stronger and the “them and us” gap bigger, which hurts open communication and cooperation (let alone being an unpleasant working environment).

So, what can we do?

First, have some humility. Realise that YOU are just as likely to be vulnerable to Confirmation Bias as anyone else. We like to think we’re more self-deterministic than others. We’re not. Get over it!

Second, show some empathy. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Engage positively and with an open mind. It’s amazing how many times I’ve had an “Ah ha” moment, and even apologised for how I acted when I better understood their view point. Crucially, this also builds trust, which is vital in being able to work together to solve problems.

Lastly, burst your filter bubbles. Follow and read viewpoints you disagree with as well as ones you do. Be careful about opinions that don’t have evidence to back them up. And check that the evidence is reliable.

Challenging our biases can be tough, but it’s worth it. By doing so, we build stronger connections, foster better communication, and create more collaborative environments. And who knows, we might even change our minds along the way!