Mihail Pojarsky/Myside bias

A good text from a Canadian psychologist on myside bias - that cognitive bias that makes us stay true to our own views of the world and the views characteristic of our group, ignoring the evidence that is in conflict. With regard to many other cognitive distortions, there is an inverse relationship with the level of intelligence - the smarter a person, the less he is subject to them. But not in the case of myside bias - experiments show that everyone is equally affected by it.

Why? Because there is a perfectly reasonable mechanism behind it. We really should evaluate new information in the light of our well-founded position, treat with skepticism everything "revolutionary". But the catch is that there are views that we have developed through analysis, and there are those that we just want to believe in. Political views are rather the latter. We do not so much choose them consciously as we receive them in the form of “memes” that infect our consciousness, which conveniently fit our temperament and character (which are innate things). And then the myside bias mechanism begins to work, which makes the system of views self-supporting, cutting off all inconvenient data. So people are convinced that they themselves have chosen and thought over their position, although in reality it is all more of an accident, varnished with distortion.

This distortion is most dangerous among the intellectual elites. they are convinced that they are less subject to distortion than mere mortals. This is true for many distortions, but not for myside bias - which makes intellectuals most blind to this distortion. Further, the author writes that it is thanks to this mechanism that the American (humanitarian) academy has turned into a large liberal sect, where people are hounded and fired for expressing "inappropriate" views. The author compares the myside bias mechanism with the evolutionary development of appetite - it was once formed in conditions of limited resources, but today, when there is junk food at every step, following natural urges will easily lead to obesity, so you need to restrain the urge and eat dessert only after broccoli . It is the same in the intellectual sphere: there is the necessary "broccoli" (critical thinking, working with evidence, discussions, etc.), and there is "dessert" - identity politics, ideological wars, and the like. We like the latter, but it leads to "obesity" of the intellect.

Good perspective. And, in my opinion, it strongly resonates with certain ancient views that neither education nor social status alone can guarantee you a deeper understanding of the world around you. This can only give a systematic and hard work to develop certain qualities (as they used to say - "virtues"). Such as a critical attitude towards oneself and one's views. Only this will help you not to get stuck in the trap of distortion.

Mihail Pojarsky 2020-10-09