Blog Post 9: EOTO Theories

Confirmation Bias:

    There were many theories looked at in reference to media law and literacy. One that I found to be the most interesting was confirmation bias. What this is essentially is when people have a belief of something and goes about their life based on that one belief. In other words, confirmation bias is the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one's existing beliefs. These practices result in ignoring information that isn't factual and is inconsistent. People who have confirmation bias tend to favor information that confirms their existing beliefs or hypotheses.

    There are many different types of confirmation bias. A couple is a biased search for information, biased interpretation, and biased memory. With the biased search for information, people search for evidence to support their argument in a one-sided way. This meaning that they search in a way that will specifically support their beliefs. For example, if I, as a dog lover wanted to prove that dogs are better than cats, to support my argument I would search something along the lines of "Why dogs are the superior pet as opposed to cats". This, however, is a very biased search because the search engine will look for articles based on dogs being better rather than article evenly comparing the two. A better search would be "Which animal is better, dogs or cat?". This poses a question with two variables to search rather than one variable that is heavy on one side of the argument. Biased interpretation is when people interpret evidence with respect to their existing beliefs. They do this by evaluating confirming evidence differently than evidence that challenged their preconceptions. Now let's go back to the example with cats and dogs. For this example, I chose the unbiased route of searching for evidence. Due to my biased interpretation, I would praise all articles that support my argument that dogs are better than cats. On the other hand, articles that I saw saying cats are better would not be interpreted in that way. Instead, I would read that article and pinpoint all the negatives and make that the takeaway that I got from that source. ultimately making it seem like I am still correct. As far as biased memory goes, it's basically selective hearing. You hear and remember everything and anything that supports your case. Anything else is thrown aside as if it never happened. This leads to a lack of knowledge and ignorance.

    You may wonder why people don't just read the facts and believe it. But I understand the many reasons why. As somebody who doesn't like to be wrong, I am a culprit of confirmation bias. Sometimes you just want to win an argument whether you are right or wrong. And for others, it's a pride thing. Admitting you were wrong takes a toll on your ego and you lose the power you once held. And for others, they just don't take the time out of their days to research and cross-reference their theories and hypothesis. For most, hearing one side of an argument is enough and they don't need to go any further to produce their own opinions.

Spiral of Silence:

    A theory that I learned from one of my classmates is called the Spiral of Silence. This being the idea that one's willingness to express their opinions on controversial public issues is affected by their largely unconscious perception of those opinions. People are reluctant to not only speak up for themselves but also speak up on the behalf of others. They are afraid of what people will say or think about them. There are so many people whose voices aren't heard because they fear society's response. This silence spreads and transfers over to other people and it hinders the world from citing on their freedom of speech.

Sources:

https://www.simplypsychology.org/confirmation-bias.html

https://www.britannica.com/science/confirmation-bias

https://noelle-neumann.de/scientific-work/spiral-of-silence/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/spiral-of-silence