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<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en"><head><meta charset="utf-8"><meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><title>Overcoming Confirmation Bias - Jon Kragh</title><meta name="description" content="In a quest to make better decisions, I have been researching confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. This research has made me more aware of my blind spots and how to overcome them. As a side benefit, I can also identify other people's biases more effectively."><meta name="generator" content="Publii Open-Source CMS for Static Site"><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.jonkragh.com/overcoming-confirmation-bias.html"><link rel="amphtml" href="https://www.jonkragh.com/amp/overcoming-confirmation-bias.html"><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.jonkragh.com/feed.xml"><link rel="alternate" type="application/json" href="https://www.jonkragh.com/feed.json"><meta property="og:title" content="Overcoming Confirmation Bias"><meta property="og:image" content="https://www.jonkragh.com/media/posts/8/overcoming-confirmation-bias.png"><meta property="og:site_name" content="Jon Kragh - Reflections on my constant improvement journey"><meta property="og:description" content="In a quest to make better decisions, I have been researching confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. This research has made me more aware of my blind spots and how to overcome them. As a side benefit, I can also identify other people's biases more effectively."><meta property="og:url" content="https://www.jonkragh.com/overcoming-confirmation-bias.html"><meta property="og:type" content="article"><link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com/" crossorigin><link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=PT+Serif:400,700&subset=latin-ext&display=swap" rel="stylesheet"><style>h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,.btn,[type=button],[type=submit],button,.navbar .navbar__menu li,.navbar_mobile_sidebar .navbar__menu li,.feed__author,.post__tag,.post__share>a span,.post__nav-link>span,.footer{font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Fira Sans","Droid Sans","Helvetica Neue",Arial,sans-serif,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol"}body,h1,.h1,blockquote,.search__input,.author__name,.author__info>p,.feed__item h2,.post__nav-link{font-family:'PT Serif',Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif}</style><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.jonkragh.com/assets/css/style.css?v=a62251faf72d6a9abce19a111e4dd07f"><script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.jonkragh.com/overcoming-confirmation-bias.html"},"headline":"Overcoming Confirmation Bias","datePublished":"2020-06-11T23:07","dateModified":"2020-06-12T22:38","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.jonkragh.com/media/posts/8/overcoming-confirmation-bias.png","height":1200,"width":1200},"description":"In a quest to make better decisions, I have been researching confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. This research has made me more aware of my blind spots and how to overcome them. As a side benefit, I can also identify other people's biases more effectively.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jon Kragh"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Jon Kragh"}}</script><script src="https://www.jonkragh.com/assets/js/ls.parent-fit.min.js?v=1c78585e2a70398fe95085061942fd37"></script><script async src="https://www.jonkragh.com/assets/js/lazysizes.min.js?v=149ff45fc6c2f13e892e438a58abb77f"></script><script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-804471-3"></script><script>window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
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This research has made me more aware of my blind spots and how to overcome them. As a side benefit, I can also identify other people's biases more effectively.</span></p><p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">This post focuses on overcoming confirmation bias, and another post focuses on overcoming cognitive dissonance.</span></p><p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">My research approach follows a standard process. First, my research team aggregates all of the main articles on a topic into a single file. From there, my team finds common themes and consolidates those themes into a single file that drives the key takeaways in these posts.</span></p><p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">These are my top ten takeaways from the confirmation bias research. If you want to dig deeper,<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/19GqK8am0dYwUFohd4JPZFPS8WRFCatin09syGG-vsWQ/edit?usp=sharing"> you can use this Google document with all of the deep-dive content</a>. That document contains actionable techniques to help you make better decisions by systematically becoming aware of and overcoming your own biases.</span></p><ol><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that confirms our previously existing beliefs. </span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Confirmation bias can lead to poor decisions, wrong choices, and can cause us to think unobjectively. These poor outcomes can happen when we miss important information by not seeking objective facts and not interpreting information that opposes our views and beliefs.</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Confirmation bias impacts how we gather information and influences how we understand and recall that information.</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Confirmation bias explains why two people with opposing views on a topic can see the same evidence and come away feeling correct and validated by it. When people have opposing ingrained ideological and emotionally charged views, cognitive bias becomes more pronounced.</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">People experience confirmation bias because people do not want to find out that they are wrong, commonly known as challenge avoidance.</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">People only want to find out that they are right, widely known as reinforcement seeking. </span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Overcoming confirmation bias is all about changing your approach. Let go of the fear of being wrong, confront your ego, be comfortable with disagreements, and, most importantly, avoid forming conclusions without appropriate facts. </span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">You can overcome confirmation bias by asking great questions, keeping information channels open, as well as pressure testing your ideas with others, especially with smart people who disagree with you.</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">You can help other people to overcome confirmation biases by slowing down the reasoning process, encouraging them to avoid forming a hypothesis too early, and improving the way you present information (i.e., by giving simple explanations instead of complex ones).</span></li><li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">In a business situation, you can help people overcome confirmation bias by increasing their accountability and involving them in the decision-making process. In other words, make their decisions matter, which tends to lead to improved objectivity when responsible for the outcome.</span></li></ol><p> </p></div><footer class="wrapper post__footer"><p class="post__last-updated">This article was updated on June 12, 2020</p><ul class="post__tag"><li><a href="https://www.jonkragh.com/homepage/">homepage</a></li></ul><div class="post__share"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonkragh.com%2Fovercoming-confirmation-bias.html" class="js-share facebook" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><svg class="icon" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><use xlink:href="https://www.jonkragh.com/assets/svg/svg-map.svg#facebook"/></svg> <span>Facebook</span> </a><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonkragh.com%2Fovercoming-confirmation-bias.html&title=Overcoming%20Confirmation%20Bias" class="js-share linkedin" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><svg class="icon" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><use xlink:href="https://www.jonkragh.com/assets/svg/svg-map.svg#linkedin"/></svg> <span>LinkedIn</span></a></div><div class="post__bio bio"><img class="lazyload bio__avatar" data-src="https://www.jonkragh.com/media/website/Jon_Kragh_Arms_475.jpg" alt="Jon Kragh"><div class="bio__info"><h3 class="bio__name"><a href="https://www.jonkragh.com/authors/jon-kragh/" class="invert" rel="author">Jon Kragh</a></h3></div></div></footer></article><nav class="post__nav"><div class="post__nav-inner"><div class="post__nav-prev"><svg width="1.041em" height="0.416em" aria-hidden="true"><use xlink:href="https://www.jonkragh.com/assets/svg/svg-map.svg#arrow-prev"/></svg> <a href="https://www.jonkragh.com/how-to-use-empathy-in-business.html" class="invert post__nav-link" rel="prev"><span>Previous</span> How to Use Empathy in Business Conversations</a></div><div class="post__nav-next"><a href="https://www.jonkragh.com/how-to-use-metaphor-in-business.html" class="invert post__nav-link" rel="next"><span>Next</span> How to use metaphor in business </a><svg width="1.041em" height="0.416em" aria-hidden="true"><use xlink:href="https://www.jonkragh.com/assets/svg/svg-map.svg#arrow-next"/></svg></div></div></nav></main><footer class="footer"><div class="footer__copyright">Powered by <a href="https://getpublii.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Publii Static CMS</a></div><button class="footer__bttop js-footer__bttop" aria-label="Back to top"><svg><title>Back to top</title><use xlink:href="https://www.jonkragh.com/assets/svg/svg-map.svg#toparrow"/></svg></button></footer></div><script>window.publiiThemeMenuConfig = {
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