What Makes Intelligent People Prone To Bias?
Everyone has their biases — that’s plainly just a fact of life. But you might presume that more intelligent people are better equipped to take note of their own leanings and to analyze information in a more neutral, clearheaded way. On the surface that might feel like a reasonable presumption to make, but, in actual fact, numerous studies have shown that smarter people are more prone to allowing their biases to influence their outlook. Why is that?
Prone to bias
When a person is faced with a complicated problem, there tends to be a range of potential ways of tackling and solving it. In the best-case scenario, the individual will apply critical thinking to the situation, weighing up their options in a balanced manner and, ultimately, establishing the best course of action.
That’s not always what happens. To the contrary, a range of studies have suggested that, really, people are prone to seriously contemplating only the options that they’re already predisposed to favor in the first place.
The “myside” bias
This tendency — which has been termed the “myside” bias — can be observed in the way people act in real-life situations all the time. On top of that, researchers have noted it over and over again in a range of different studies.
It’s hardly groundbreaking to learn that people act on their existing beliefs. But what is a little surprising is the suggestion that smarter individuals appear to be more prone to doing it than most.
A real-life example
Let’s consider a real-life situation. The death rate associated with COVID-19 is substantially higher than that of regular flu. That’s an established fact, backed up by reams of research. The specifics are difficult to establish, given the changeable nature of the COVID-19 situation, but the scientific community has shown that COVID-related deaths are, as Johns Hopkins Medicine puts it, “substantially higher (possibly ten times or more) than that of most strains of the flu.”
This statement is demonstrably true: there’s plenty of evidence for it. Yet many people don’t buy it, insisting instead that regular flu and COVID-19 are just as deadly as each other. Within this group of people who buy into the idea are plenty of individuals of above-average intelligence.
Explaining away biases
Research has indicated smarter people are especially likely to interpret situations in a biased way. In her book THINKING 101, Yale University psychology professor Woo-kyoung Ahn, suggests why, noting it’s “because they know more ways to explain away the facts that contradict their beliefs.”
She went on to reference a groundbreaking study on this subject, which took place in 1979. It illustrated confirmation bias in action, but it also showed how subjects undertook “elaborate and intelligent efforts” in order to “maintain their bias.” It’s a fascinating read.