Fact, Fiction, or Popular Opinion?: An Exploration Into the Dangers of Repost Culture and Confirmation Bias

“Hey, can I take your picture?”

The question threw me off guard as I was strolling along by the river.

My initial reaction was to say no. I was taken aback when “Yeah, sure!” came out of my mouth instead of some bullshit gesture of pointing at my watch with shrugged shoulders mouthing “I can’t.” My hard New York edge has been softening since being in Australia. Funny how living in a place with hardly any crime and hardly any guns can make you feel safer and more trusting.

Turns out the man worked in IT. Nearly every day for the past 7 years, he sits on a bench with his camera during lunch, hoping to take portraits of someone passing by. “I can shoot trees, birds, boat.. but nothing captures life in motion like the human face.”

We snapped some photos and engaged in “where are you from, what do you do” pleasantries.

“Maybe we can shoot again next week?” I find myself craving any sort of artistic outlet these days, and I smiled with a “Sure!”

Same time, same place, one week later, and a wildly different experience.

The conversation began with marveling about the beauty of nature. The vibrant ferns in question were perfectly draped to catch the sun. The circle of life flows with a mesmerizing elegance. There are a few obscurities and hiccups here and there, but the overall picture is  absurdly perfect.

But how?

It quickly became apparent that we were at odds. “A Catholic and an Agnostic walk into a bar….”

Poses and camera clicks were replaced with science, scripture, and philosophy as we debated the existence of God. You know, just your casual 12pm on a Tuesday topic of conversation. I won’t say who was one which side, that’s not what matters. What does matter was that the conversation was shockingly civil. We each shared our arguments then listened to the opposing side with open ears and at least a semi-open mind. Afterwards, he emailed me some reading materials, I did the same.

The encounter was thrilling because his thoughts were so different than mine. My circle either shares the same views as me, or we simply leave religion off the table. I also can’t say I’ve honestly explored his side in depth since college.

The thick, cozy yet inhibiting, filter bubble of confirmation bias surrounding me was  popped.

Confirmation bias is when we look for, interpret, and retain information that’s in line with our prior beliefs, and this encounter is what sparked my recent deep dive into this cognitive error. Click HERE for research. (It’s a bit tedious, but I’d highly recommend giving it a read!)

This bias leads us to seek out news in line with our opinions while surrounding ourselves with like minded people. Every click, scroll, and post tends to confirm what we already believe to be true as our brains dismiss conflicting information to avoid cognitive dissonance. Our biases are fueled further and further until we’re so entrenched in our own idea of what’s “right” that the line between subjective opinions and objective truth disappears.

Forget wacky conspiracy theories, corrupt politicians, and bad journalism. Confirmation bias is the #1 threat to progress and truth-seeking that we are currently facing.

Here’s the problem.

There’s an extreme pressure to have an opinion.  If you don’t publicly state your stance on hot topic issues, surely it means you don’t care or are uninformed….

But being informed is tough! There are so many issues in the world, and staying up to date on each one is quite frankly impossible. Yet, the perceived  social consequences of being “uninformed” is the ultimate fodder for latching onto popular opinion and repost culture, driving us to semi-mindlessly share the thoughts of others without doing the hard work to develop an opinion of our own.

Repost culture was particularly exposed during the recent Israel-Palestine conflict. The deeply rooted issues are complex and challenging to fully understand,  and there was an absurd amount of head-scratching reposts circulating around as people desperately sought to prove they were staying informed.  The #challengeaccepted trend during summer 2020 is another example of how trends can trump purpose and shadow truth.  A movement designed to bring awareness to victims of femicide in Turkey was lost to the lure of posting a sexy black and white photo. The err was realized, then over corrected to a “women supporting women” movement. (Click HERE to learn more)

Here’s the thing, reposting isn’t the problem. Mindless reposting is.

Remember, confirmation bias leads us to seek out information that’s in line with our own beliefs and associate with people who share said beliefs. When every single person is sharing the same information again and again and again, we get trapped in a spiraling vortex of confirmation bias. Our ability to approach new information with an open mind in a quest to be truth-seekers is nearly impossible. (Check out the neuroscience section in my confirmation bias post if you want to learn more about how our brains fuel confirmation bias.)

And let’s not forget that the internet is full misinformation; statistics with poor data sets, generalizations based on anecdote, “facts” based on pulling information from one singular study. If a crazy man ran onto  the subway yelling, “Drinking 3 acai smoothies a day helps your hair grow long and strong!!!” you would likely be skeptical. If you read the same fact on an Instagram post by a heath guru with 700K follows, you probably won’t check her/his sources and you’ll probably  use her/his “get 10% off!” code conveniently located in her/his bio.  

Reposting false information sparks something known as the “illusory truth effect.” The illusory truth effect states that if information is repeated  enough times, we will believe it to  be true.  From eating carrots to make your vision better to needing to drink  8 glasses of water everyday (click HERE for a transcript of a fantastic podcast with Dr. Jen Gunter on the topic), the illusory effect is another barrier standing between us and the truth.

But wait! It’s not all doom and gloom!

Sharing ideas, news stories, and thoughts is an amazing privileged free speech allows us, and it provides an incredible opportunity for voices to be heard and valuable information to be shared. Social media and the internet are powerful tools that can be used to spread and seek knowledge and truth.

 Yet, the social pressures of being informed and needing to speak up can blur the line between sharing something with the intention of giving your friends interesting reading materials and sparking new discussion vs simply proving you have an opinion.

I buy into repost culture. I feel the pressure to share opinions I haven’t properly formed out of the fear of being “uninformed.” I get caught in a web of my own confirmation biases as I confuse “right” with “truth.”  I fall victim  to the illusionary truth effect.

This post isn’t designed to attack you. It’s an exploration of my own behavior and a continuation of my fascination with why people believe what they believe and why misinformation is so common.

Making a full circle…

My friends, my fiance, my targeted ads, my go-to podcasts, and my go-to news sources all skew in one direction, and I can begrudgingly admit that I often confuse my own subjective opinions with objective truths. The recent election particularly brought this to light. I’ve written off so many news stories, theories, and ideas as not only “wrong”, but flat out outrageous. But did I really move past my confirmation bias to explore all available resources to arrive as said opinion? Not a chance.

Engaging in a religious debate with a total stranger was like a bucket of ice water was dumped on me. It was the first time in a long time I’ve genuinely engaged in a semi-open minded conversation with someone sitting on the complete opposite side of the table. The revelation was jarring. I like to think I’m open minded, but that’s a wistful self-indulgent thought. I admittedly could not fully quiet down my own opinions while assessing his.

Remember: everyone thinks she is right.

For every opinion you feel passionately about, someone, somewhere believes the opposite.

History is riddled with “truths” being totally disproved and toppled down:

The earth is flat, lobotomies cure mental disorders, refined sugar is ultra healthy, asbestos is an awesome building material, cocaine is a wonder substance that should be in soda…..

Just 60 years ago, cigarettes were seen as healthy. Doctor’s prescribed them and high schools had smoking areas. Today, cigarettes are responsible for 480, 000 deaths a year in the United States alone according to the CDC. Check out Why the Good Old Days Weren’t So Good for a great reflection from my dad.

What “truths” today will be seen as totally wild and preposterous in the future? What “truths” will turn out to be harmful, maybe even deadly? Questioning anything and everything, no matter how “right” it seems is essential for catching errors before it’s too late.

So what can we do to be truth seekers and truth spreaders?

First things first, just because someone doesn’t share an opinion on social media doesn’t mean she isn’t putting in the work to learn about it. You can donate money without telling your followers. You can advocate for a cause without creating a post about it. Or, you can share your opinions, thoughts, feelings, and efforts! Both approaches are fine! But assuming that silence equates to consent or ignorance creates an unproductive social pressure that forces baseless opinions. My personal experience has often shown that those who do the most, share the least.

How can we fight confirmation bias and the illusionary truth effect?

Before reposting or accepting information as true, ask yourself a few questions:

• Who is this from and what are her qualifications?
• What are the sources? And yes, actually click on said sources.
• What are the motives? AKA, is someone making money off of the acai berry discount code?
• What are you adding to the conversation?: Will someone else find the information useful, inspiration, encouraging, thought-provoking?
• Do you actually care or are you succumbing to perceived social pressures?

Before sharing your own thoughts:

• What are your sources?
• Have you explored all sides of the argument?
• What are your motives?
• What are you contributing to the conversation?

Subjective emotions will always impact objective truth. “Truth” tends to be in the eye of the beholder, after all.

Becoming aware of our own cognitive errors, being open to being wrong, and striving to develop informed opinions with all sides of the argument and all types of research taken into consideration are steps in the right direction towards making meanigful progress.