We love confirmation bias; you know, the fact that we more readily believe those things that confirm, rather than challenge, our existing beliefs.
We love it when we can use it to explain the behaviour of others, or our inability to persuade them to our way of thinking. “Oh, they’ll only listen to things that they agree with.”
But we have a blind spot:
Seeing confirmation bias in ourselves.
We’re no different than they are. We, too, are attracted to the arguments that have already persuaded us. Challenge our way of thinking? No thank you, that takes too much effort, too much thought, and besides … even considering such thing implies that we could be wrong.
Being wrong threatens us at some primitive level, it seems.
There is safety and security in continuing to believe we’re right, and avoiding things that might prove otherwise.