Back in the day, it was called rose-coloured glasses.
Psychologists call it
confirmation bias.
Whatever its name, seeing only what you want to see and hearing only what you want to hear, is a potentially dangerous blind spot, stifling intellectual curiosity, social progress, scientific advancement and moral development.
On an individual level, confirmation bias was on display in the case of Chandra Scopie, a local woman who applied for a housekeeping job on the Sandman hotel chain's website, only to receive a reply email informing her that only permanent Canadian residents are being hired at this time and the chain has no plans to sponsor non-Canadian workers.
The problem was Scopie was born and raised in Prince George but her East Indian first name was a red flag for Sandman's human resources department. The company's HR manager, Treva Gardner, apologized to Scopie for the slight, explaining that Sandman receives 100 to 200 international applicants for any position they post. Gardner and her staff have to weed out these applicants quickly before passing on a long list of qualified Canadian candidates to the manager of the chain's individual properties.
Confirmation bias dictates that if someone is going through a stack of online applications, looking for non-Canadians, they're going to find non-Canadians or people they believe are non-Canadians, no matter what.
This isn't a problem by one person at one company. Confirmation bias runs right through individuals and institutions, often invisibly and in many different forms. In some ways, it's harmless (the perceived significance of a Canucks win over the Flames) but it can be used in far more potent doses. Prejudice, discrimination and hatred are as rooted in confirmation bias as devotion, trust and love.
All are equally susceptible to blindness.
Individuals can't see how confirmation bias skews their thinking, only how it twists the views of those who don't agree with them. Everyone inflates their own ability not to be fooled. In other words, everybody can see everybody else's rose-coloured glasses but nobody can see them on themselves when they look in the mirror.
Confirmation bias was working overtime Thursday night.
Jon Stewart's departure from The Daily Show was greeted with laughter, tears and fond well wishes. His adoring viewers remain convinced he skewered everyone in the political arena equally and are unwilling to admit that, over the years, he had become soft on the left in general and on Barack Obama in particular. He knew better than his fans it was time to go.
Also on Thursday night, the top 10 candidate hopefuls for the Republican Party presidential nomination, all frequent targets of Stewart in his final days, gathered for a debate. For those who can't stand Republicans and despise Donald Trump, the debate confirmed the Grand Ol' Party is bankrupt of ideas and worthy of nothing but ridicule. Fans of The Donald also heard what they wanted to hear - everyone on the Republican ticket except for Trump is a loser and Rosie O'Donnell remains a fat pig.
Back home in Canada, the four main political party leaders also gathered for a debate. This was a far tamer and more civil affair, confirming the common Canadian belief that we are smarter and more sophisticated than our gun-toting, Trump-lovin' ignorant American cousins. Americans listening to Justin Trudeau, Elizabeth May, Tom Mulcair and Stephen Harper exchanging views would no doubt have come away with their belief even more firmly entrenched that Canadians are boring, polite to a fault and still irrelevant on the world political stage.
There's no way a Harper supporter watched last night's debate and came away thinking Trudeau would be a better prime minister or a Stewart fan shut off the TV confident Trevor Noah will be an even better Daily Show host.
The cure for confirmation bias is so simple but so difficult.
Turns out everyone, especially editorial writers, has the same problem as the Fonz on Happy Days. Being in the wrong and admitting it publicly requires not only humility but a willingness to cast aside the easy comfort and understanding of the world that confirmation bias delivers.
Nature abhors a vacuum, of course, meaning that even when cold, hard reality forces beliefs to be cast aside, new beliefs step in the void, propped up by confirmation bias, just like before.
