People seek only the information that validates their existing beliefs which tends to make them believe it more whether right or wrong.
As a designer, I study people – the way they think, act, perceive, learn, memorize, etc. Part of these human factors are cognitive biases. Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that favors information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases.
People seek only the information that validates their existing beliefs which tends to make them believe it more whether right or wrong.
Here are some ideas to avoid confirmation bias.
Understand your tendency to exclude other opinions and facts and seek information that only validates your existing beliefs. Think For yourself. Do your own research. Question what you hear and see. Don’t just follow the crowd belief.Validate information with what you personally hear and observe. Sincerely listen to an opposing view without feeling your ego is being attacked and defending your stance. Seek information outside your normal comfort zone. Check all facts before jumping to conclusions. Challenge assumptions. Don’t read this and assume it doesn’t apply to you.
What are the least effective ways to eliminate confirmation bias?
Kick everyone off your social media page that doesn’t support your view. Name call and attack people with different points of view.Demean or stop talking to others that don’t agree with you. Surround yourself only with information and people that confirm your beliefs. Profile people into wide groups with sweeping generalizations – if you believe this then you also do x, y and z.
What ways can the government help with confirmation bias in government services?
Verifiable Data
Transparency
Accountability
Empathy – Understanding people’s unique challenges, emotions, culture, and goals allow for empathy. Empathy creates compassion which is necessary for shifts in mindset. Shifts in mindset change the world.
In the end, we will remember most the actions, character and behaviors of our family, friends and neighbors and the character traits they exhibited during this unprecedented time.
Our vision is a country where people have equal access to public services because they are designed in a way that is thoughtful, intuitive, easy to navigate, transparent, accountable and user-centered.
Author: tamella
Tammy Fritz has over 25 years experience in design. She is an independent contractor and Principal and Founder of Pink Frog Interactive, Inc. Tammy founded Pink Frog in 2005 where she specializes in human-centered design including human computer interface design, design research, customer experience design and service design. Tammy has a passion for combining human factors, design thinking and research, innovation and technology to help solve complex problems.
Tammy has a Masters of Design degree in Communication Planning and Information Design from Carnegie Mellon University. She did her thesis work and worked with the Human Computer Interaction Institute at CMU studying internationalization in design, way-finding in virtual environments and how to evoke, assess and predict affect in design. Tammy also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and a certificate in Specialized Technology from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Her work has won design awards from Intel and AIGA and has been submitted for patents.
Tammy follows a user-centered design process and uses principles and techniques derived from cognitive science, psychology and anthropology to partner with her clients and design and test services, product interfaces and interactions in order to make them efficient, useful, usable and desirable.
At Pink Frog, Tammy has interviewed hundreds of our clients customers across the globe in multiple languages to find out what constitutes an exceptional customer experience, define the customer journey and provide actionable insight for a company roadmap.
Tammy has shadowed nurse practitioners in the field and interviewed users in Jacksonville Mississippi to help redesign applications to order medical supplies. She has redesigned medical insurance websites and designed medical benefit communications to employees. Some of Tammy’s clients have included TE Connectivity, First Insight, Developmental Dimensions International (DDI), and Genco (now FedEx). Tammy has also done design work as a subcontractor for Highmark, McKesson, North Shore Long Island Jewish Center Cancer Institute, Rite Aid, CDC/NIOSH, Martris LLC, and Capital Blue.
Prior to founding Pink Frog, Tammy worked at IT companies design software including NDCHealth and Freemarkets where she worked in multidisciplinary teams within large IT departments to brings the needs of the customer to the process. She has led large-scale ui design efforts in co-branding, branding, workflow, information architecture, and internationalization and worked on sites that were over 4000 prototype pages from the ground up. She has worked on mergers helping companies consolidate functionality of web applications into one seamless user experience and multiple internal applications into one consistent user experiences. She has worked on large scale pharmaceutical applications and has led ethnographic research projects. She has worked through all phases of the human-centered design process.
Tammy volunteers as a foster parent for the Humane Society, secretary for Pennsylvania Association Gifted Education, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and Epi-Life.
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