Page 175 - The Social Animal

Social Cognition 157

have happened, for a whole host of reasons. It was incredibly
hard giving up the idea that there was a clear, identifiable rea-
son for my daily sadness and hurt. I was very vulnerable and
messed up when I read that book. I could have done untold
damage to my family—and to myself—if I had ever made pub-
lic my “memories.” I still feel very angry—but not at my par-
ents—at that damn book!

How Conservative Is Human Cognition?

Imagine that you are in a dark room looking at a photographic image
so blurred that it is impossible to identify what is depicted. Gradu-
ally the picture is brought into focus until it is just slightly blurred.
At this point, you are asked to guess what it is. If you are like most
subjects who have participated in this study, you will be correct
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about 25 percent of the time. But suppose you started by looking at
the slightly blurred picture without the early gradual focusing. Will
your hit rate be better or worse? At first, it might appear that your
accuracy would decrease because you are spending less time looking
at the picture. Not so. Even though you would now have a briefer pe-
riod of exposure, without the gradual focusing, you would be correct
almost 75 percent of the time—a threefold increase in accuracy. How
come? The results of this experiment illustrate what is known as the
confirmation bias—the tendency to seek confirmation of initial im-
pressions or beliefs. When the picture is very blurred, most people
will generate hypotheses about what it might be—it looks like an ice
cream cone; no, a rearing horse; no, the Eiffel Tower. We have a ten-
dency to cling to these preliminary guesses; these guesses then inter-
fere with our ability to interpret the slightly blurred picture. Much
evidence exists to suggest that the confirmation bias is a common
tendency in human thought. For example, in an experiment by Mark
Snyder and William Swann, female college students were told that
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the person they were about to meet was either an extrovert (outgo-
ing, warm, and friendly) or an introvert (reserved, cool, and aloof ).
They then prepared a set of questions that they would like to ask this
person to get to know him or her. What types of questions did they
wish to ask? In general, subjects sought to confirm their original hy-
potheses. Subjects who thought they would meet an extrovert were
more likely to ask questions that confirmed their hypothesis, such as
“What do you do to liven up a party?” and “In what situations are