Information Bias

Many of my posts have touched on the concept of perceiving Truth. It's an important topic to people - we rarely questions our own sense of truth and it scares a person when his sense of truth is rattled. The model that people have a set sense of Truth and all new information follows is not new to psychology. The idea of how prevalent and regular this occurs, however, has recently rattled the sense of the Psyche, however.

As psychologists developed the model of Cognitive Psychology, they regularly used the two terms Assimilation and Accommodation to describe the ways in which we retain knowledge and build our personal models of the world. Each day we're faced with a plethora of new facts, sensations, images. As we take in the information, we compare that info to our sense of the world. While our view and concept of the world may grow bigger, we are assimilating the new information into our picture of the world. If pieces of information don't seem to match our map, we find ways to adjust the picture. As one example, consider the different ways we draw flat maps of our spherical world.

 

Cartographers pinch maps one way or stretch it another in order to show a round world on a flat map -- they have to make different accommodations in their representation of the world. The more accurate a representation a person needs, however, it becomes more difficult to assimilate that info as the map is drawn. Ultimately, a person may need to accommodate their concept of the world by using a globe.

Similarly, we can take in information that matches our own perception of the world, or we can change our perception of the world. For adults, accommodating our perception is a more difficult task -- think of all the learned information we have to reevaluate! We become victims of our own preconceptions - it can be easier to accept the information that matches our perception of the world and omit/forget/ignore any information that may not match. We unconsciously choose to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste only what reasserts our image of the world. This information bias can be benign and help keep our lives efficient. The dangers, however, come in the potential to miss vital pieces of information or perpetuate troublesome patterns of suffering in our lives.
The specific information bias is called confirmation bias -- we are biased toward the facts, figures, and examples that confirm what we believe is true. Where psychologists once provided a model where people at worst ignored new information, confirmation bias, demonstrates that we're even more difficult to dissuade. We not only ignore information that might challenge our perceptions, but we assimilate information in a way that helps perpetuate any faulty beliefs and interpretations. It becomes more and more difficult to find evidence that proves us wrong because our brain often strengthens its ability to identify only what it believes to be true.
Consider this study by Victor and colleagues which demonstrates that people suffering with depression are more likely to identify sad faces even on an unconscious level. Research continues to demonstrate that the anxious brain and the depressed brain regularly practice information bias - easily identifying facts in our life that prove the rule and (often unconsciously) ignoring facts to prove the exceptions.
It takes active practice to question assumptions and identify exceptions to our preconceptions. I frequently give clients tools that help draw out the exceptions. By helping our mind find reasons for joy, hope, satisfaction and through training the brain to more readily see these examples in our life, it becomes harder to stay depressed or anxious.

Adjusting Our Lenses to Let Go of Injustices

Perception is everything. At the end of the day, at the end of our long life, our perception is all we have. Considering we’ve spent a lifetime training ourselves to relate with this world with one type of lens, it’s difficult to switch our way of perceiving. Our style of perception works for us for better and worse. Have you ever taken a friend’s pair of glasses to take a peek? The way that pair bends the light to the eyes allows your friend to see as best as possible given the shape of your friend’s eyes – they don’t work as well for your eyes.
The style with which we cope with stressors and frustrations serves us, given the shape of our minds and hearts. It’s a little harder to measure our personality, attitudes, and identity with a simple trip to the optometrist. We rely on our own self assessment and reflection. Have you noticed times when it's been difficult to overlook unfair treatment? We can get jealous and angry that others get treated to promotions, awards, prizes that do not directly have anything to do with us. We often talk with friends about someone else's Facebook status or talk about someone else in our Facebook status.This kind of tallying and ruminating has been called Injustice Collecting.
A style of coping that uses injustice collecting rarely helps us let go of anger. We collect anger and keep the tension locked. Several researchers believe that the ability to track fairness and injustices provided an evolutionary advantage. Keeping tabs on unfair situations can help us assess our safety and need to speak up or intervene. Injustice collecting, however, is not one of the more helpful defense mechanisms or coping skills.
Keeping grudges is one type of injustice collecting. Holding on to intense anger does little service to us and does nothing to address the wrong. Grudges leave a person stewed in painful anger that has a direct physiological impact on our body and mind. Injustice collecting can also look like gossip – hashing and rehashing wrongs, acts of favoritism, or selfishness. While we often like to call this “blowing off steam,” it might be helpful to notice if it feels better after complaining. Does your body feel better? Do you feel better – happier, more satisfied, better justified?
Psychologists have categorized injustice collecting as a style of projection. Projection provides a style of coping by placing our negative and painful emotions in someone else. If a person has been having a bad day, he might question why all the people around him were in such foul moods. It can be easier to believe others have a more offensive disposition rather than admit to someone or himself that he feels frustrated and bitter. He has projected his ill feelings on to those around him, so that he doesn’t have to face his own painful feelings.
The projections that come through in our stories give a peek into our perception – the shape of our lenses. Our choices in what gossip, tidbits, and injustices that we announce conveys parts of ourselves that we fear and struggle to express. When we talk about others while they’re not present, it’s worth considering why we share those events or interaction. Often, the stories we decide to share about others’ lives, tell a great deal about what we feel about ourselves. Are we happy and happy for others? Do we feel the world is unfair? Do we think people are self interested and selfish? The gossip we share reflects a veiled projection of ourselves.
Collecting injustices fails to release grudges or forgive for human mistakes. How much can a person that holds grudges against others let go of grudges and hatred toward their own self? Collecting injustices keeps a person locked in the past, making it difficult to move on and transcend to finding solutions for the future. It’s like looking through those mirrored spyglasses in those gag catalog. Yes, you can see behind you, but wearing them makes it easier to mindlessly trip over oncoming obstacles.
Injustice collecting begets more injustice collecting. Like anything practiced, the more wrongs a person collects, the easier he can recognize the wrongs the next time. Collecting negative information reinforces those channels in the brain that identify negative information at the expense of the channels dedicated in identifying positive information. While a person gets really good at finding the wrongs in the world, it becomes harder for him to see his own successes and turns of luck. It also becomes harder to see the good in others and the blessings in the world.
As I often remind clients, it's usually easier to say than to do, and it's usually easier to do something rather than not do something. There are some helpful steps to reduce anger and connect with emotions. Examine the anger and own the anger. Evaluate how the situation directly affects you and whether the anger affects the situation. Question if the anger is for us or someone else. Were you wronged or was someone else wronged? If it is your anger recognize that the situation angers, frustrates, vexes, annoys, infuriates you. Telling yourself and others, “I am angry,” makes the emotion more real. When you own your anger, it's easier to recognize you that you can change your own attitude rather than others' attitudes or actions.
That recognition helps to bring focus to what you cannot control and what you can control. If you have some input in the matter, make an active, conscious choice to act or not act on that power. Try to find the good and the humanity in the situation. It can be incredibly hard to manage with a grudge, and when you do find the humanity in someone who's done you wrong, it can change your whole perspective on the situation. Hopefully, you'll find the lenses you look through are more in focus and maybe a little rosier.