USER EXPERIENCE
Confirmation Bias — Why do we gather information selectively?
The classic shortcut we always take to rush into conclusions.
This happened a few weeks ago.
A close acquaintance of mine asked me about my son’s choice of pursuing psychology as his college major. As I started sharing my views about nurturing independent choices in kids and how he got interested in the field, he cut me off: “Why not computer science?” And continuing in the same breath..he fired away..
“You are a software professional, didn’t you influence him to do the same?”
“Have you considered if there are enough jobs for a psychology major?”
“Will he get H1B sponsorship?”
“What about comparable compensation?”
I calmed my friend and tried to understand the reason behind his strong reaction. Turns out that his daughter is gearing up for college in 2023 and has expressed interest in neurobiology.
My friend who’s also a software professional wants his daughter to sign up for computer science or related engineering. And to make a case to her, he was gathering inputs from other parents in his network. But he was gathering data selectively, only from those who he assumed would agree with him.
This is a classic case of confirmation bias.
My dear friend had built a hypothesis based on his experience, about the practical benefits of choosing software as a profession — opportunities, salary, security, future. And he was ignoring his daughter’s interests and any other information that didn’t resonate with his beliefs.
It was clear to me as to why it was unnatural for him to digest my views.. as they didn’t match up with his own!
(Hope all turns out well for their family!)
We can observe from the episode that we often don’t realize how much bias we carry, and how it impacts our lives. The feeling of being right impairs our judgment to seek the truth (or the complete picture).
We take shortcuts instead — ignoring, interpreting, remembering, sharing — only the partial truth (or an incomplete picture) that conveniently prove us right.
What Is Confirmation Bias?
Wikipedia says:
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes.
Few everyday examples of confirmation bias:
- Superstitions: Many people believe in #13 or a black cat crossing your path as something to cause bad luck — not because they experienced it — but because they’re fed with historic and coincidental references as evidence.
- Lefties are more creative: I confess I used to believe this when I was young — only because one, I heard it from few other people, and second, I was fed some examples of lefty people who were extremely creative — making it feel true and something special
- Obsessed fans: People who are die-hard fans of a particular actor, or sports person, or a band — they seek mostly positive reviews and news bytes on their obsession, ignoring critical or negative episodes — justifying their love and following
- Blockchain: Mass believers and mass skeptics — polarization is also a result of confirmation bias.
- No competition: Companies who ignore market perception and true research on what customers need, but only focus on limited data about what other companies don’t offer — often carry the bias of having no competition
- No response: In social interactions, if you don’t receive a response to a chat, email or a phone call, you may bring in pre-conceived bias against the person — as someone who probably dislikes you and is avoiding you, because you did something wrong!
The list can go on..
While some of the biases have a minor impact, some are more serious and can be even life-altering… think: medical, legal, financial, and political!
Can You Get Rid of the Confirmation Bias?
Well, first answer this — “Can you get rid of your ego?”
If you said “yes” to the latter, then it’s a start. Of course, the assumption is that you are aware of the bias and when it creeps in and impacts your personal and professional lives.
How do you practice the skill of being aware first, and then go on to manage your bias? It takes a huge cognitive effort.
UX and Confirmation Bias
As a UX Designer, you would think that I’m trained to seek the truth, and not collect partial evidence that would boost my ego about being right. Right?
The truth is that I didn’t realize the subconscious biases in my design process in the early projects when I was working as the sole designer in fast-paced environments.
In 2015, thanks to my brilliant Product manager, I had my first big enlightenment regarding the bias, and the impact it could have on the platform that enabled Apple’s online store.
My first set of user interviews and the resulting insights were so far from the truth, as the questions alluded towards my pre-determined design direction. Exactly what I mentioned earlier: Shortcuts!
Since the audience was internal, and the timeline was not tense, I had educational mentoring sessions from a specialized UX researcher and my manager.
What followed was a truthful analysis of user pain points and comprehension, which was conflicting to my chosen design direction. But rather than be embarrassed and upset, I was thrilled to deliver the desired product experience and learn something that I could only get better at — managing my bias. Truly a humbling experience!
Years later, I must say this: I highly recommend every UX designer or aspiring UX designer to play with user research and use different methodologies as required.
This experience awarded me with an additional sensor that would keep my bias in check, even in personal situations. It would certainly do the same for you, and better yet — for your near ones too.
Many online publications talk about this subject and how to manage confirmation bias, so I won’t be giving some new trick, but here’s a summary of some borrowed gems:
- Seek disagreement: It will either validate your point or give you a reason for why you are wrong
- Look at quantitative data: It will bring a wholesome perspective to the insights as the sample size will be large
- Ask non-leading questions: Frame neutral and open-ended questions to get maximum depth, never ask yes/no questions
- Ego, ego, ego: Dump the need to be right, chase the truth
Ending this piece with a reference to the Indian parable: Blind men and an elephant (see cover image) — let’s strive to discover the objective truth and reality (the elephant), and not just a biased opinion (each of the men’s unique interpretation).
Copyright © 2022 Vishal Mehta. All Rights Reserved.
I would love to hear some thoughts, anecdotes or examples around confirmation bias :)
References and reading material:
- https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/confirmation-bias-it-s-not-what-we-think-we-know-that-counts
- https://www.motivatedesign.com/how-to-avoid-confirmation-bias-in-user-experience-design/
- https://uxplanet.org/how-to-use-the-psychology-principle-of-confirmation-bias-in-ux-design-9166e1ec017b
- https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/confirmation-bias/
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