Confirmation bias versus the truth

You are entitled to your own set of facts, but not your own opinions... Or was that the other way around?

It’s difficult to tell what the real (versus alternative) facts are these days, given the amount of misinformation and disinformation available through social media. You often have to dig deeper to get to the truth. You may not want to do further research, however, if you are easily presented with misinformation that supports your views.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek, favor, and interpret information in a way that confirms or supports a person’s personal beliefs. It’s a tendency that comes naturally to us. Education and training in critical thinking skills can help us resist the inclination.

Science relies much on education and training in critical thinking skills. It also relies on peer review and publication as guardrails to support, as much as possible, its quest to get closer to the truth. If science says something like climate change, and humanity’s role in it, is a fact, then you can bet that there is evidence to support it. If new peer-reviewed information comes along to dispute what was previously accepted, then our understanding may need to be altered. In regards to the science of climate change, this has not happened. Although our understanding is continuously being refined, no evidence has been brought to light to dispute that it’s occurring and that human activity is responsible. In fact, the opposite is the case.

When someone comes along to disagree with the science, the questions we should ask are: what credibility do they have, what evidence do they present, and have they published a peer-reviewed scientific paper or article on the subject? There is no shortage of people, some appearing to be quite rational, who wish to “debate” the facts of climate change. Such disinformation is often given credence from certain media outlets. But there is no debate about such facts any more than there is one about whether the earth is flat.

We may not want to believe that climate change is happening, or that we humans are responsible, so we may still wish to favor information to support this view. But such confirmation bias doesn’t help us understand the facts. Or to get closer to the truth.