The Group Bias

Is our tendency to cherry-pick information that confirms our existing beliefs or ideas.

To hold an idea and convince ourselves we arrived at it rationally, we go in search of evidence to support our view. And we manage to find that evidence that confirms what we want to believe. 

I believe in this idea so strongly. It must be true.

We hold on to an idea that is secretly pleasing to us, but deep inside we might have some doubts as to its truth and so we go an extra mile to convince ourselves — to believe in it with great vehemence, and to loudly contrad...

Our natural response to failure is to blame others, circumstances, or a momentary lapse of judgment. 

It's often too painful to look at our mistakes. It pokes at our ego. We go through the motions, pretending to reflect on what we did. But with the passage of time, the pleasure princ...

It’s when we cannot seem to see our faults and irrationalities, only those of others. 

For instance, we’ll easily believe that those in the other political party do not come to their opinions based on rational principles, but those on our side have done so.

This al...

We do not see people as they are, but as they appear to us:

• people have trained themselves in social situations to present the front that is appropriate and that will be judged positively. 
• we fall for the halo effect : when we see certain negative or positive qualitie...