When wrong feels like the right way to go
When you point out an error someone is making, and they seem to ignore you and double down, it may be the 'backfire effect.'
It can be frustrating as a leader when you coach someone not to do something, and they do it anyway. You suggest they turn left rather than right, and not only do they keep turning right, but they also turn right harder and faster.
This reminds me of a manager who worked on one of my teams. For this example, it doesn't matter what his problem was, but let's say it hurt his ability to manage and motivate his team. His boss coached him, I coached him, and I think his team even tried to coach him. Still, he kept doing the ‘wrong’ thing.
Did he not listen? Did he not understand? What was going on?
Well, this may be an example of the 'backfire effect’ or bias in action.
The 'backfire effect' should not be confused with an action that 'backfires' on someone. In this case, you do something that you wish to have an impact on, and the opposite happens. The best example is now known as the Streisand effect. This effect is more around unintended consequences than biases.
The Backfire Effect
The website effectiviology.com describes the Backfire Effect the following way: the backfire effect is a cognitive bias that causes people who encounter evidence that challenges their beliefs to reject that evidence and to strengthen their support of their original stance.
Like the manager I referenced above, the backfire effect implies that showing people evidence that proves that they are wrong, is often ineffective and can end up backfiring. Worse, it can cause them to support their original stance more strongly than they previously did.
Sometimes (see many politicians), they do, of course, know they are wrong but are scared or not willing to admit it. So, they stretch or mix the truth to make them feel more comfortable - well, lie if we are honest. We should ignore these examples, as they are deliberately trying to mislead or prevaricate. We need to care about when we exhibit the backfire effect not to get caught up in its impact.
I searched for an excellent example of this, but all the examples I found would have to be prefaced by 'trigger warnings.' As I looked at each instance, I could hear someone trying to convince me my example was wrong because they suffered from the backfire effect. Worse, trying to make my point would be so uncomfortable for some people that they would reject the whole premise because of the case I used. Two great examples here would be Vaccines and Climate Change.
We might go as far as to say, the only examples you will be comfortable accepting are ones where your confirmation bias can kick in.
Protecting Yourself
It is worth remembering that cognitive bias, like the backfire effect, exists for good reasons. These biases are shortcuts that our brain uses to make life easier. Having to deep analyze everything all the time would be both exhausting and debilitating. We discussed what Daniel Kahneman called 'Thinking Fast and Slow' in a blog here.
So, what can we do to watch out for getting caught in the backfire effect (or any bias)?
1. Be aware - if we are aware that these biases exist, we can look out for them in both ourselves as well as others. Listen to when people use the shortcuts and in which situations. Then ask yourself, do I use these shortcuts in similar situations.
2. Be accountable - you must commit to yourself to be aware of your biases and do something about them. Hold yourself accountable for managing your biases.
3. Say it out loud - be comfortable to say, out loud, "my biases may be in the way of my understanding, so can we talk through."
4. Think before you speak – because the bias is a shortcut you use before you say something, think through what you are going to say and check for your biases.
These can be hard to do, but practice helps. In a group conversation, hold yourself back and listen for them. They will be easy to hear because they make life simpler. Other people can be happy with more accessible if inaccurate thinking, but we should be aware when taking mental shortcuts. It’s not reality, and it is just a story we are telling ourselves.
Biases and Biases
When it comes to biases, beware of some concocted by people who use their biases to convince you of something. I would recommend that you go back and read Thinking Fast and Slow and study which biases are at the root of how we think. Take, for example, very politically charged subjects like ‘White Privilege’. You need to decide if you think this is a bias or something else that exhibits itself to you as a bias. Also, remember that a ‘political bias’ is not the same thing as a ‘cognitive bias.’
However, your cognitive biases may encourage you to see political biases where they may not exist. Additionally, Daniel Kahneman’s latest book collaboration called "Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment" makes an interesting case for the confusion caused by 'noise' in a system rather than 'bias.'
As the authors explained in a NY Times piece:
Society has devoted a lot of attention to the problem of bias — and rightly so. But when it comes to mistaken judgments and unfortunate decisions, there is another type of error that attracts far less attention: noise.
Maybe more on that another time.