When Bias Trumps Science

A healthy dose of reality can improve your behavioural change efforts

A recent social media post triggered the first surprising response. What I presumed to be a simple description of research findings — that our brains can show peak cognitive abilities later in life — was met with a flurry of old images and newspaper headlines that countered my message. No amount of contemporary peer-reviewed research would matter.

Confirming the pre-existing bias trumped science. What to do?

Step 1: Set Idealism Aside

This sounds easier than it actually is.

I was left prone to idealism through a classical education that blended rhetoric, philosophy and ethics. Reading the classics is a lot about how the world could be, and this inspired some of the greatest thinkers in Western history from the Enlightenment through America’s Founding Fathers. This desire to build a better world can be intoxicating.

Unfortunately, higher aspirations can also bind us in the moment.

Step 2: See The Moment for What It Is

A second recent conversation brought me down to reality.

After several recent conversations, both in person and email, I paused when a longtime colleague started sending me newspaper articles confirming that our brains inevitably decline by 45. Perhaps my colleague was testing me. My reading in that moment, however, was different.

It’s more comforting and the world feels more certain when we confirm our biases rather than accepting the uncertainty that comes with opening yourself up to new science.

Step 3: A Sober Assessment of Your Starting Line is Essential

Don’t expect science or reason to compel everyone.

Instead, begin by better assessing what is really the core obstacle. In my case, I realised that an inspired future built on peer-reviewed science will not trump an existing belief — even if that belief is now clearly refuted (exactly as science should do!). It can be comforting to think we were right all along.

The challenge now is not to make breakthrough science more inspiring; the challenge is to help my audience retain the certainty they value.

Lesson learned — define the problem based on actual behaviours.