Suffer from Confirmatory Bias? Janice Taylor, Anti-Gravity Coach, Weight Loss Expert, Positarian, Author, Artist to the Rescue!

Have you heard of the term “Confirmatory Bias?” It is a psychological term that references a certain type of selective thinking. Most of our opinions and our beliefs – particularly about ourselves – are formed when we are young.

We spend the rest of our lives gathering evidence to support these core beliefs and ignoring everything to the contrary.

It is human nature to do so. If we were to consider and reconsider all our beliefs, opinions, thoughts, we’d never get anything done. When a belief system is ‘embedded,’ it takes hold and it becomes the lens from which we see our world. We automatically and unconsciously look for and note that which supports our beliefs and we ignore – don’t see, don’t consider – that which contradicts it.

An example: If you believe that during a full moon there is an increase in admissions to the emergency room where you work, you will take notice of admissions during a full moon, but be inattentive to the moon when admissions occur during other nights of the month. A tendency to do this over time unjustifiably strengthens your belief in the relationship between the full moon and accidents and other lunar effects.

Our self-esteem is very much affected by confirmatory bias. Our belief in whether we can permanently remove excess weight, drop or shed pounds is very much affected by confirmatory bias.

You can reverse the effects of confirmatory bias by actively looking for evidence against old beliefs.

Take out a pad and pen (old school, so you can hear and experience the scratching of the pen on the paper), chew on these coaching questions, and then allow yourself to write, write, write.  Stream your consciousness!

What belief is your weakest link? Which negative belief (probably more than one, hey?) either completely brings your progress to a screaming halt or slows it down, down, down (ugh)?  Feel free to comment below, or on the KITT Club/FB page.

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Janice Taylor, Anti-Gravity Coach™, Positarian, Author, Artist
buoyant * magnetic * luminous