Why Does Worldview Matter? The Impact of Worldview I – Confirmation Bias
Have you ever wondered what the big deal is about ‘worldview’?
Why care about what your worldview is, or someone else’s worldview is? What is
the big deal about worldview studies, or worldview awareness? I hope to address
the importance of worldview awareness and analysis in a series of posts,
drawing on insights worked out more fully in our recently-released text, An Introduction to Christian Worldview
(IVP Academic).
Worldview is the conceptual lens through which we see,
understand, and interpret the world and our place within it. Worldview develops
in and flows through the heart, the center of the human person, and necessarily
involves answers (propositional or narrative) to four questions: What is our
nature? What is our world? What is our problem? What is our end? Every person
possesses a worldview that provides an answer or set of answers to these core
worldview questions, but these individual worldviews can be compiled under
broad categories.
The Impact of Worldview
I greatly enjoy mysteries and detective stories, from
Sherlock Holmes to Hercule Poirot, Law & Order to NCIS. When
cops or crown attorneys have a working thesis concerning a particular crime,
their approach to evidence is affected by how that evidence relates to their
governing thesis. For example, if they suspect someone of committing a
particular crime, tiny bits of evidence will strengthen their position.
One of my favorite shows was Monk, starring
Tony Shalhoub as the obsessive-compulsive, brilliant, and dysfunctional
detective Adrian Monk. In one episode, “Monk and the Astronaut,” Monk
investigates the murder (a staged suicide) of a former call girl who was about
to publish a revealing autobiography. Monk quickly becomes convinced that the
murderer is a prominent NASA astronaut and rising politician. During the
investigation, Monk discovers that the woman’s autobiography had included a chapter
relating how, many years earlier, the suspect had been arrested and jailed for
beating the now-deceased woman during their tumultuous romantic entanglement.
When Monk hears this, it supports his thesis that the astronaut is “the guy.”
The revealing autobiography (now mysteriously erased from her computer)
provides motive for the murder. The evidence is not airtight: there are no
surviving manuscripts of the autobiography, no solid proof that the woman was
going to “out” the suspect, no concrete evidence that the call girl was beaten
by the suspect. But it doesn’t take a big piece of evidence to support or
maintain Monk’s theory; he now has his suspect’s potential motive.
I am often asked why worldview matters: What does it
impact? Why bother learning about it as a concept, and one’s own worldview
specifically? What does it have to do with life? Simply put, worldview matters
because one’s worldview affects everything that one thinks and does, through confirmation
bias, experiential accommodation, the pool of live options,
and life motivation. Today, I want to look at confirmation bias – I will
return next week to look at other impacts that worldview exerts upon us.
Worldview and confirmation bias.
Worldview affects us through a phenomenon known as confirmation
bias. “Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one
tends to notice and to look for what confirms one’s beliefs, and to ignore, not
look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one’s beliefs.”
(Robert Carroll) In other words, confirmation bias is the influence of
worldview guiding a person to affirm what fits with his preexisting worldview.
As the English philosopher Francis Bacon wrote, “It is the peculiar and
perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by
affirmatives than by negatives.” We tend to see, dwell on, and be excited by
what fits with our existing worldview beliefs. Confirmation bias is the first
way in which worldview affects our approach to external data.
You can see confirmation bias at work in many
different areas. For example, consider proponents of evolution. According to
Darwin’s original theory, the fossil record should be filled with multitudes of
intermediate species, transitional fossils that highlight the evolutionary process
from one distinct species into another. While evolutionists acknowledge that
the vast fossil evidence predicted by early Darwinists is simply not there, the
theory persists. And every year or two, one hears the proclamation of a new
fossil discovery of a possible “transitional species.” There are not many
intermediates, certainly not as many as predicted, but proponents trumpet each
new proposed discovery as proof of evolution’s truth.
Along the same lines, proponents of a worldview that
claims we live in a random, purposeless universe, and that human life on earth
arose strictly by chance, tend to believe that there is or ought to be life
somewhere out there in the universe. If it is believed that there is life
beyond the earth, then the discovery of lines that look like ancient river beds
on the surface of Mars is quite exciting and serves as confirmation of that
worldview. To others, it just looks like interesting lines that might indicate
there used to be water on the surface of Mars—nothing earthshattering, and
certainly not proof that life could have existed on the Red Planet.
Alternatively, Christians who believe in life after
death, that this physical life is only the introduction to eternity, point to
studies of near-death experiences as proof that there is at least a minimal
existence and consciousness after death. Due to the influence of confirmation
bias, it doesn’t take a significant amount of corroborating evidence to
reinforce the existing worldview.
Confirmation bias also affects what evidence in
particular is emphasized. For example, some Westerners point to Osama bin
Laden, the 9/11 attacks, ISIS, and other terrorist activities perpetrated by
Muslims to conclude that Islam is a hate-filled, inherently violent religion.
Others
point to the Red Crescent and other Muslim charities
to argue that Islam is a compassionate, inherently peaceful religion. The same
evidence is seen by both parties, but each group emphasizes the data that fit
with their preexisting perspective.
Confirmation bias exerts a powerful influence upon all
of us, regardless of our underlying worldview. Being aware of one’s own (and
others’) worldview, then, can help identify when and where one is being
affected by confirmation bias. Am I embracing these data because the data are
convincing or because they fit my worldview presuppositions? Am I valuing this
set of data over that set of data for objectively compelling reasons or simply
because this set confirms what I already think?
For more on confirmation bias, and all things
worldview, check out:
Tawa J. Anderson, W. Michael Clark, and David K.
Naugle, An Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God's
Perspective in a Pluralistic World. IVP Academic, October 2017. 384 pp. Amazon link
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