Winning Over Confirmation Bias Lessening Polarization

Fidhia Kemala
Jul 23, 2017 · 8 min read

“A dedication to internet society”

Polarization by Timo Meyer

As Indonesian civilization crawls on the soil where freedom of expression compels and thrives, people are yet coincidently chunked in confined prison, overshadowed by the threat of censorship. Last month, Prime Minister of Communication and Informatics, Rudiantara conveyed to suspend and block some social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, if none of any cooperative dispositions will be proceeded by the companies’ representative in order to utilize the spreading of fake news.

As he extended that the suspension would be the last option to take, the government might not regard this option as an assault of free speech instead it’s easy to refer it as a magnum threat to lubricate the intricate business policy with big internet corporations or as a lazy short cut to shield issues caused by inevitability of technology development. Surprisingly, this week the government did (permanently) shut down a messenger application, telegram, which is acquainted in echoing radicalism epistles. Due to this lack of creative apprehensiveness while solving technology problems, it would be no big differences between the prime minister of technology and angkot drivers who broke protest in menace because of online transport application.

I hope everyone is in final agreement that fake news or other kinds of misinformation does matter, it has intoxicated internet users virtually and internally. The dangerous polarizing society as the causal effect of this fallacy already transcended to the specific scope of the ecosystem itself, infectiously implanted in individual mind, like a brain tumor. Therefore, in similar manner in treating terminal illness, dealing with fake news needs incise yet mild, enduring medication.

The method has to assimilate multitude of external prescriptions and self-internal healing. Since there is no way to block something contagious without ever created the antidote, the government shouldn’t write the prescription in form of repressive regulation like censorship as it will violate freedom of expression and undercut this acute disease without ever try to prevent it. In a way to internalize the remedy, the carriers -most of social media users who already developed polarizing attitude- should reinstate the working mechanism inside their body of mind.

It Is Not About Technology Issue, The Problem Is Way Of Thinking

The feature problem in modern era where everyone always attaches to technology is the new dimension of society developed from the technology itself, the virtual society. Social media’s feature nowadays is already in the state of serving people to personalize their compartment for accessing information and news based on their own preferences.

The technology does help people to build their own echo-chamber by self-curating which accounts they likely want to follow or emerging some posts or news they might entice to read, as if it accommodates them to live inside their own bubbles. When people delve into this inner circle, the circle tends to induce biased fashion of perspective magnifying predetermination that unfolds under the similar value and opinion the circle members share. Their thought process would be entrapped under the term of confirmation bias, they start to only consume information that bolsters and validates their initial beliefs and toss away all types of information that apparently deteriorate the prior theories or considering them as fake news. In this state, the technology issue already alters into psychological and way of thinking matter.

The designation of confirmation bias also catalyzes hand by hand with selective accessibility symptom such as anchoring opinion from experts or pundits who robustly evoke the same preconception. Hence, occasionally this biased upbringing will acquire people deem expert’s advocacy as a valid truth corresponding with subsequent unconscious credence in phrase of illusion of unanimity, a state when people adjust their opinion into majority agreement to reinforce their believe perseverance. In further case, it probably could lead to another stage of logical fallacy like conjunction fallacy, the idea when the news is more likely to be true if the story generates complex explanation.

Thinking About Swimming, Potentially Going Swimming by Dale Crosby-Close

People who already nurtured themselves with strong preconception belief are prone to viscerally imply extreme opinion and hardly to showcase moderate openness while facing contra-argument. According to David McRamney on his book You Are Now Less Dumb, under the shield of confirmation bias during the time people actively seek information as they coalesce with other arguments that challenge their notions, those contradictions could backfire and strengthen their misconception instead. When this backfire effect perpetuates over time it could make people more skeptical with other external believes and become more certain to view their preconceived notion as the most proper, inherently, reconstitutes the process of bias assimilation.

The attempt in configuring bias assimilation mechanism which had done by psychologists from Stanford University back in 1978 told that after received subsequent evidences both supporting and opposing the prior beliefs the subjects of the experiments were not reporting significant shift in their conviction, but they were confirming “what they believed to be more rational or appropriate”. In lack of better phrase, the backfire effect compels both the proponent and opponent into the deeper state of their indigenous beliefs.

Meanwhile, every segment in society rearranges their social construct chamber by chamber and gravitates towards confirmation bias simultaneously emulates backfire demeanor, fake news is on board to infiltrate the news feed, replacing the virtue of factual information, polluting the glance of diversity. At that time polarization punctually comes forth reinventing the virtual world as the new battlefield of self-righteousness. Fake news might be the perilous consequence of technology development, but it is designed to suffice the biased bubble of human mind in the first place.

Critical Thinking vs Passive Thinking

Yet internet society is still galloping around immense and enormous amount of information. A research conducted by Shanghai Institute of Technology brings a brief view that people now are not able to separate the good and bad quality of the information they access as the result of too many sources. Since it has been so hard to be certain about everything, the subject matter about the difference between objectified story and opinionated news seems not matter anymore. People will frivolously justify all the information as credible knowledge.

Thinking of by Jisoo Kim

Diminishing one single step of knowledge evaluation would make people hastily compose superficial impression or zero-based opinion that could lead into the prevalence of apparent bias. In complicit manner, people dauntlessly entitle their beliefs already perspire from the broadest process of obtaining hindsight. They are absolutely dare to discover new information, occupying their mind through search engine, idea streaming, and download platform. However, claiming to have a thinking mechanism as open as subterranean plateau does not mean you have courage to be wrong, the courage to admit that in this devastating journey of perceiving information, you are still wrong and bravely concede in fact other people are right. If people do not want to appease with humility in expanding knowledge and continue to think passively just for their own merits, they will never reach improvement such as the utmost critical thinking.

Reinstating the mechanism inside the body of mind, in other way, is to regain the wisdom of understanding that has been destroyed by the epidemic of misinformation and restricted echo-chamber. Maria Popova in her article, Wisdom in The Age of Information, deliberates the concept of the ladder of understanding, the process to elevate fastidious critical thinking. The ladder puts daily information that people seek on the first ground navigated as the basic fact about the world, in this case, the fact might be invalid or wrong. Thereupon, in the second level people encourage to transfix general information into knowledge that represents truth through practical interpretation, how the truth works in societal ramifications. The last step to achieve wisdom is by reevaluating the truth with comprehension as if the truth already amplifies how the world should work and invokes the notion of ideal world.

Win Over Yourself To Face The Real Truth

Escalating consciousness with objective and cohesive thought process is not tangentially shortage-issue, the battlefield we must conquer first is not the storm of internet uproar, but the combat that is placed inside ourselves. On forth, every single thing that includes the soul to intrude will lead mileage away to arrive.

The ultimate enemy is the eggshell-head we live in that denies new perspectives, admonishes adverse evidence, and despises contra-argument, at the same time it reinforces the extreme version of our bias attitude. We polarize the society we nurture, we nullify that in the land of diversity -when everyone has their own agenda- we still share the same truth. The common truth about the ideal world we dream to thrive under, the world that brings peace.

Thinking by Matt Varner

It must be clarified that preoccupying the mind with wise and healthy thoughts in the form of critical thinking is not in the same meaning with not having strong, deep-seated opinion or staying neutral or even worse shut in silence. In the happenstance where people compete to be the most creditable hero in fixing social issues by writing apprehensive status in social media feeds, regardless how cynical the statements are or deliberating offensive travesty. Nonetheless, this mess is also sort of paraphrasing visceral moment of humanity, their Facebook status or tweets are driven by the sympathy that works in response of the tragedy occurring around them.

So, do you still think it is the time to quote ‘silence is golden’? If you choose to keep quiet, it is hard to differentiate the quote with shouting phrase like ‘you are just an ignorant!’ As a matter of fact, the urgency of speaking-up-your-mind is the titular reason why people regenerate themselves through self-expression outlets like social media. And I don’t think being neutral is our job, it is the primary task to polish if you want to be labelled as reputable media.

It is our duty to pacify the mess we create by genuinely opening the parachute of the mind, ceaselessly arguing, challenging, and countering what we believe. But, perhaps the modest stance we are apt to try is designating compulsion of thinking passively and confirmation bias as the threat for future life and further generation. We are the notion of disparity, but it never defines us to be surrounded by polarization. The connected tissue we should weave, as the tech-savvy universe provides the plausible time for movement, is the framework of fluid society that gazes upon inclusiveness.

References:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/09/wisdom-in-the-age-of-information

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbj8gq/study-pins-fake-news-plague-on-limited-attention-spans-information-overload

Lepper M., Lord C., Ross L. (1979). Biased Assimilation and Attitude Polarization: The Effect of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,37,11, 2098–2109

McRamney D. (2013). You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself. Avery

Nisbet E.C., Sol Hart P. (2011). Boomerang Effects in Science Communication: How Motivated Reasoning and Identity Cues Amplify Opinion Polarization About Climate Mitigation Policies

Wojcieszak M. (2011). Deliberation And Attitude Polarization. Journal of Communication, 61, 4, 596–617

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Fidhia Kemala

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Almost ages a quarter of century, ex-misanthrope who aspires to be a synthesis in internet society, still struggling to be constantly productive in writing.

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Examining any medium of storytelling, amiable with pop culture territory: book, film, series, music, media, and current affair

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