Logic and reason are among the crown jewels of our cognitive abilities. Both help us navigate the many simple and complex decisions we make each day. However, despite having such powerful tools at our disposal very often our decision-making is hijacked and subverted by more subtle unconscious and automatic processes. Who hasn't purchased a must-have item, only to later reflect 'what was I thinking?', especially when the unappreciated item haunts the depths of our wardrobe as a semi-permanent reminder.
Often the mistakes we make are systematic: they happen time and again, proving the rule rather than the exception. These types of errors are often the consequence of the super-efficient ways our brains have developed to deal with the masses of information we are bombarded with each waking moment of our lives. Psychologists call these efficient information processing techniques heuristics; I like to call them cognitive short cuts or rules of thumb.
One such short cut we all use pretty regularly is the confirmation short cut. We tend to look for information that confirms our ideas and then we stop looking. Rarely do we actively seek out disconfirming evidence and often we are immediately and irrationally satisfied with relatively limited confirmatory information. I was once waiting to meet a business contact in a hotel lobby in Cairo when an overly energetic young woman bounded in full of purpose. She must have picked up from my body language that I was waiting for someone: almost instantly she honed in on me and walked briskly over to where I was sitting.
" Justin?" she said assumingly. "Yes," I replied, with more surprise than warmth. She then launched into an elaborate spiel about the corporate hospitality her company had planned and began outlining the proposed itinerary for the day. I knew there was a mistake; the contact I was expecting was called Mohammed and he was not in the telecoms business. Thankfully, short of me having to interrupt the young woman mid-flow, another guest of the hotel came forward to say his name, too, was Justin. Needless to say this second Justin was the one she was sent to meet. No real harm done, although the young woman was rather embarrassed.
Imagine this same situation playing out in a busy hospital ward: instead of a corporate hospitality person, this time we have a nurse asking if I am Justin. In this situation my affirmation could lead to me receiving another patient's medication with potentially fatal consequences. This has happened, and happens more commonly than it should, especially given what we know about the human tendency to use the confirmation short cut.
