I mentioned that a couple of people have cautioned me about bringing any sort of social science into my upcoming dissertation, and I continue to give that a lot of thought.
This morning in Sunday school, I brought up "confirmation bias" in relation to the story of Simon the Pharisee inviting Jesus to dinner at his house and then being aghast at Jesus allowing a sinful woman to touch his feet, anoint them with perfume, and wipe them with her hair.
As Simon watched this scandalous behavior, he thought to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:39)
But this was confirmation bias - he had already made his mind up about Jesus. We see this when Jesus points out that Simon had failed to give him any water to wash his feet and had failed to greet Him with a kiss.
If Simon had thought there was even a 5% chance that Jesus was prophet, a man of God, would he have treated Him so nonchalantly?
Nope. His mind was made up.
And seeing this woman at Jesus' feet just confirmed it: Jesus was no prophet!
(Funny how Simon assumes he knows exactly how a man of God should react to a sinner touching him! Watch out for religious types who are experts at predicting God's moves.)
Being right is very important to us. Reassurance that we are right, then, is incredibly valuable. Our brains are ever on the watch for further evidence that our opinions are correct.
Nobody in class had heard the term "confirmation bias" before, but they had all seen it. Because they all have experienced human interaction! As far as I could tell, nobody in class was put off by the fact that social scientists have studied this aspect of human behavior. It's a genuine phenomenon.
So why should psychology intimidate a believer?
It doesn't dictate human behavior. It just describes it.
And having a label as a shorthand description of some aspect of the human experience can be incredibly useful at times.
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