Cognitive Dissonance & Confirmation Bias

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

Two psychological responses that can mess with creativity and entrepreneurship

Before I delve into these two traits of human nature, let’s look at what Wikipedia has to say about them:

• ‘In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort (psychological stress) experienced by a person who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. This discomfort is triggered by a situation in which a person’s belief clashes with new evidence perceived by the person.’ Cognitive Dissonance
• ‘Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that affirms one’s prior beliefs or hypotheses.[1] It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply-entrenched beliefs.’ Confirmation Bias

Why am I lumping them together? Because they are intimately related in the sense that are both about belief systems and threats to them. Both of these reactions can be totally unconscious and can seriously impact creativity and business formation concepts. First a little…