One of the first things I learned at college was to avoid confirmation bias. To do that, research was required – especially from opposing viewpoints. It was important, if not necessary, to consider things from other lenses beyond your own. With the power of the internet, you can find articles and sites that support just about anything, but you have to be discerning to have a full scope of the situation. Whatever your echo chamber, there’s one out there waiting for you. If you think the sky is green, there’s likely a site out there speaking at length about how “Big Sky” has had us hoodwinked for eons.

I see it all the time on social media: Someone makes a post which is well-intentioned but horribly inaccurate. There’s a photo with it, which obviously means it is all true, but there hadn’t been any research done to confirm it beyond the tenuously “factual” Facebook post someone saw in their feed. They mindlessly accepted it as fact because it aligned with what they believe in. I routinely check the veracity of such posts and find the photos used alongside the “facts” are not even related. They are instead photos taken out of context.

It stuns me sometimes that people tend to so readily take things at face value because it’s on the internet and it sounds good. The truth is not always comfortable, it oftentimes asks us to fit unfamiliar molds for the sake of growth and understanding. The world is composed of people from so many walks of life and backgrounds, there is no way to understand even a small percentage of them if we remain in our tiny, self-indulgent circle where everything is always to our liking.

Outside of misguided posts on Facebook, I see it all the time in real life. I had my oil changed a few months ago and, in the waiting room, two gentlemen had an exchange about political figures which started out civil enough, but it rapidly devolved into a heated argument because one party insisted on falsehoods which were easily disproven by anyone with a working internet connection to Google. Of note in this situation, the one making the preposterous claims was the aggressor, so dogged in his beliefs he rejected the other’s ideas without even trying to understand him. He was not listening; he was waiting for the other to speak so he could respond – there’s a big difference.

This type of interaction seems to amp up during election years, which is unfortunate because these are the times when there should be more scrutiny than ever on the claims being made from all sides.Instead, people flock to their comfort zone and accept each spoken word as fact without delving more into the details. It is the product of confirmation bias and should be more concerning to folks than it is. Expanded horizons are not dangerous or harmful, but denial of them can be.

Standard reporter Nikki Childers can be contacted at design@southernstandard.com