CONFIRMATION BIAS IN ENTREPRENEURS

When you look for allies to confirm what you think, and those who don't think like you, become your enemies. A bias closely associated with the bossYou look for those who applaud your ideas and unless you have someone you trust to offer that contrast, it's hard to see the error. In fact the lack of those trusted people who tell the entrepreneur what to listen to is one of the circumstances associated with many failures.

How to combat it

And if not, what is the worst that could happen? To stop looking for confirmation, we must be aware of what we want to prove, avoid generalisations, allow time to search and read about what is being refuted and then analyse the good points of each position.

It is a widely held bias and implies that We tend to look for and give much more weight to data and information that confirms or aligns with our views, perspectives or beliefs than to those that contradict or do not support our hypotheses.

This is because dissonance or discomfort is generated in our brain when we process information that is contrary to our beliefs, and so, unconsciously We tend to discard it or reduce its weight. This is a huge bias dangerous because It makes us unaware of the reality, and it can kill our business.

That's why experimentation, experimentation hypothesis validation (+) and many of the lean startup techniques are the best way to overcome this bias and see the world as it is, as hard as it is.

"Women don't know how to park, left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people and more and more people are meditating: no matter how absurd or obvious a statement may seem, the truth is that everyone has their own convictions and it is not easy to get off the donkey...".

Surely, You have already experienced it first-hand in discussions, for example, when someone sticks to their opinion no matter how many objective arguments refute it.

On a day-to-day basis, people tend to disregard or even ignore indications that are not in line with their worldview, while, at the same time, tend to focus on those that do support such a vision.

The mechanism at work in such situations is confirmation bias. This cognitive bias distorts our perception of reality and ensures that we internalise information in a selective way that is adapted to our preconceived ideas.