Seeing what you look for

It’s only human nature to notice the aberrations. One store clerk acts surley and you remember the one instead of the dozens of others who treated you well. One psychopath shoots up an abortion clinic and suddenly all pro-lifers are murderous maniacs. A bad cop commits an egregious crime and suddenly all cops are evil. And suddenly the news is just full of stories about those terrible cops/murderers/clerks.

But you know what? It just ain’t so.

I drove to work today, and not a single driver drove unpredictably or dangerously. No one threatened my safety. Normally I wouldn’t even notice. Focusing on the idiot who tried to kill me last week, I would remain convinced that all Utah drivers are absolutely terrible and a menace to Western Civilization. But clearly that’s just not so. If it were I wouldn’t have made it four years living here without an accident.

Much of what we likely believe these days is really just a result of noticing the outliers coupled with confirmation bias. Something draws our attention, and then, because we’re suddenly very aware of such things, we see more examples of that something everywhere we look. We may even start to write our own narrative onto events that don’t really confirm our bias. A cop shot a black person? It’s obviously another example of police racism and brutality, so there’s no need to stick around to hear the real facts, or even listen to the facts objectively.

But it’s simply not so.

Most of the people in government I’ve dealt with have been kind, polite, and helpful. Most drivers are driving sensibly. Most airplanes don’t crash. Most Muslims don’t become terrorists. Most Christians don’t shoot up abortion clinics. Most Liberals don’t want to turn America into Ye Olde CCCP. Most college students don’t engage in stupid protests for stupid causes. Most people on my Facebook feed don’t relentlessly post socio-political meme pics. It just seems that way, because that’s what we notice.

It’s probably a good idea every so often to step back and question some of our biases. I’m trying to do that more, and hence this post. Because in reality, the vast majority of drivers I encounter every day are driving sensibly for the conditions, are paying attention, and use their signals. I can’t help but wonder what else I might change my mind on if I tried harder to notice what doesn’t first draw my attention.