Economist Confesses to “Myside Bias”

In the December 2011 issue of The Atlantic, Daniel B. Klein, a professor of economics at George Mason University, writes an apologetic article—sort of. The title of the article is: “I Was Wrong, And So Are You.” I don’t recommend trying that apology with your spouse—not if you want to stay married. In the article, Klein recants much of what he wrote in another article published in the Wall Street Journal in June 2010. That article reported and interpreted the results of a survey conducted by Klein and Zeljka Buturovic, a researcher with a Ph.D. from Columbia University. The survey investigated the “economic enlightenment” of respondents. Essentially, Klein and his colleague were testing “people’s real world understanding of basic economic principles.” The results were condemning of political liberals and progressives. Here’s the breakdown of the results, as reported in The Atlantic article:

· Progressives (or “very liberal”) got 5.3 of the 8 questions wrong

· Liberals got 4.7 of the 8 questions wrong

· Moderates got 3.7 of the 8 questions wrong

· Conservatives got 1.7 of the 8 questions wrong

· Libertarians got 1.4 of the 8 questions wrong

· And those who identified as “very conservative” got 1.3 of the 8 questions wrong

The results seemed to indicate that the more liberal or “progressive” a person is, the less economically enlightened they will be.

Klein conducted follow up research indicated that the results were misleading. The cause of the confusion: Confirmation bias. Klein refers to this psychological phenomenon as “myside bias.” Klein explains,

“… several of the statements we analyzed implicitly challenged positions held by the left, while none specifically challenges conservative or libertarian positions. A great deal of research shows that people are more likely to heed information that supports their prior positions, and discard or discount contrary information.”

This explained why the first survey yielded misleading results. The follow-up research showed that conservatives and libertarians were just as likely as liberals and progressives to get the wrong answer on questions that challenged their strongly-held political positions.

I like how Klein illustrates what he calls “myside bias.”

“Suppose that on some public issue, Anne favors position A, and Burt favors position B. Anne is more likely than Burt to agree with statements that support A, and to disagree with statements that support B, because doing so simplifies her case for favoring A. Otherwise, she would have to make a concession to the opposing side.”

Religion & Politics

“Myside bias” is a part of being human. It’s as true in religion as it is in politics.

The old saying about good manners warns never talk about politics or religion. Today, we might update the old saying to: “Never talk about politics or religion with anyone who has a different perspective.” But, good manners aside, “not talking” about our different perspectives is not helping anyone. The fruit of such avoidant behavior is increasing discomfort and inability to cope with people and ideas that challenge our strongly-held beliefs and positions. So, we do what people typically do when they can’t cope. We isolate and only associate with people in our circle of agreement. We only pay attention to information that we agree with—if you don’t like what FOX News is saying, turn the channel to MSNBC or CNN, or vice versa.

What is true about political ideology is often true about matters of faith. Solomon’s wisdom declares: “He who answers before listening—that is his folly and his shame” (Proverbs 18:13).