Topic > Avoiding Thinking Traps: Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is the desire to believe that something is true regardless of the evidence that may be presented against that belief (confirmation bias, psychology today). Confirmation bias occurs when a person wants certain ideas to be true. The individual ignores and stops collecting all information that does not agree with his points of view and considers only that which supports his ideas (Confirmation Bias, Science Daily). Confirmation bias applies to this case study because it can be assumed that the pilots used confirmation bias in their particular situation. It can also be assumed that the pilots ignored obvious signs pointing them to the wrong runway and no one told them they were on the wrong runway. Attention was paid only to the signs that led them to believe they were on the right track. It can be assumed that as part of coaching pilots they are taught to look for correct and incorrect signals when taking off and landing at an airport. I think because the pilots were at the time, it was easy for them to think that what they were doing was right. I think this applies to the lessons we have learned as coaches because sometimes it seems like we think we are telling others the right things when we coach and/or teach them how to do something and ignore the verbal and nonverbal cues that are suggested to us that are given. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Availability bias is the tendency to rely on things we can think of immediately to make quick decisions and judgments (Cherry, K. (n.d.), verywellmind.com). As humans, we are often influenced by personal and sometimes dramatic events, and our environment can also influence our thinking habits (Availability Heuristic, Thedecisionlab). When someone needs to make a decision in a split second, the term availability bias is used because they are making a decision based on the most recent and available information (Availability Heuristics, Thedecisionlab). In this case study, availability bias applies in one case, where Polehinke did not raise red flags of being on the wrong runway because he was required to land a plane at another airport two days earlier. After all, the lights were on a bluegrass airport runway (Ortiz, B., Patton, J., & -, MK, Kentucky.com). It could be assumed that Polehinke used availability bias in this case because a similar situation had occurred two days earlier. He might have assumed that since the lights were out at the time, the lights were still out and the situation had yet to be resolved. In my opinion, availability refers to current lessons because we can provide the latest information to our coachees when asked a question that we may not know the exact answer to. It's a chance that we can relate information we heard or tell them about an experience we learned from. I think availability bias isn't all bad because it's good to relate a personal experience to lesson learning situations. Sometimes it's best to think about how you will react and how you should react before you do it. My remedy to avoid and control thinking traps would be to identify negative thought patterns that you always fall into when faced with situations that cause you to think critically and situations you are unsure about. Thought patterns can influence people's well-being, as we saw in this case of.