Episode 262: Big Ideas | Confirmation Bias
We all know change can be hard, but what about changing our own thinking? Can the discomfort associated with conflicting ideas keep us from fully engaging with them, or prevent us from objectively weighing data? Why does ‘putting it on the shelf’ sometimes feel like our only option? The human tendency to seek validation for existing beliefs is called Confirmation Bias. Religions and politics both depend on it; by naturally pursuing evidence that supports our current position, people maintain the conviction that “My team is the best.” In Episode 262, Cynthia and Susan discuss confirmation bias, and some of the ways it may function among church members. As Brian McLaren explains, “People only change their minds when the pain of not changing surpasses the pain of changing.”
Notes & Quotes:
Recognizing Our Biases: The Power of Confirmation Bias, Center for Action and Contemplation, 11/19/2025
What Is Confirmation Bias? | Psychological Explanation & Examples, MindfulThinks
Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience, by Brené Brown
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, by Richard Rohr
Dancing Standing Still: Healing the World from a Place of Prayer, by Richard Rohr
A Mirrored Funhouse of Confirmation Bias: a sermon on Palm 27, by Nadia Bolz-Weber, The Corners, 3/17/2025
Why I Spent 90 Minutes Steaming an American Flag, by Nadia Bolz-Weber, The Corners, 4/13/2026
Coming Closer to Jesus Christ, by Dallin H. Oaks, BYU Speeches, 2/10/2026
Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith, by Sarah Bessey
Why Can’t We See?, Learning How to See with Brian McLaren podcast, Center for Action and Contemplation, 10/5/2020
Sermon on Seeing More Than Just What We Look For, by Nadia Bolz-Weber, Patheos, 1/16/2017
“You may have heard the old saying that people only change their minds when the pain of not changing surpasses the pain of changing. That old saying is all about confirmation bias.” —Brian McLaren
"We are willing to receive all truth, from whatever source it may come.” —Joseph F. Smith
“My brain has a lot going on, so it interprets hard work like this as pain….Wanting to save me from that extra reframing work, my brain presses a “reject” or “delete” button when a new idea presents itself. ‘I’ll stick with my current frame, thank you very much,’ it says. And it gives me a little jolt of pleasure to reward me for my efficiency.” —Brian McLaren
Confirmation bias is “a state of tension that occurs when a person holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent with each other.” —Brené Brown, (p. 81)
“When we’re faced with information that challenges what we believe, our first instinct is to make the discomfort, irritation, and vulnerability go away by resolving the dissonance. We might do this by rejecting the new information, decreasing its importance, or avoiding it altogether. The greater the magnitude of the dissonance, the greater is the pressure to reduce dissonance.” —Brené Brown
“There must be, and, if we are honest, there always will be at least one situation in our lives that we cannot fix, control, explain, change, or even understand.” ―Richard Rohr
“Before the truth 'sets you free', it tends to make you miserable.” ―Richard Rohr
“What you decide to look at determines what you do not see.” —Richard Rohr, (Dancing Standing Still, p. 70)
”Not to put too fine a point on it, but it feels like the machinery of late stage capitalism coughed up the internet for us with its empty promises of connecting us all through social media – only to leave us in a mirrored fun house of confirmation bias.
“I feel so surrounded by it that it’s suffocating and I’m left wondering what is real….and what is true when there are such starkly different narratives out there about the world that are then custom delivered to our devices to assure us that we are right about everything.” —Nadia Bolz-Weber
“The biblical text, when treated as a Living Word and not simply a dead policy manual, allows meaning, comfort, and wisdom to unfold in both old and new ways for each community that studies it. It allows the Bible to surprise us, live in us, even interpret us.” —Nadia Bolz-Weber
“Remember, “to survive spiritually,” you will need the “constant influence of the Holy Ghost.” An abundance of speculation and false information in podcasts and on social media surrounds us. Some may protest or question the truth of Church doctrine without knowing or even understanding the fullness of that doctrine. Don’t be persuaded by false or inaccurate information. Discuss your concerns with faithful, well-informed friends and always take those concerns to the Lord.” —Pres. Dallin Oaks
“Sometimes one of the greatest gifts God gives to us is losing our religion. We have to be committed to unlearning the unhelpful, broken, false, or incomplete things if we want to have space to relearn the goodness, joy, and embrace of God. But it sure doesn’t feel like it at the time.” —Sarah Bessey, (p. 31)
“The third thing [the third choice] is our contemplative mind [which] helps us to step outside of that thought and embrace another. But because the God thing, right, the God thing, you and me and Richard as people of faith, we can project those stories, those biases onto God. God has ordained men to lead, women to be quiet. God has ordained white is right, white is powerful. God has ordained straight people....All of that stuff gets stuck in the religion story. So how do we push ourselves to a third space where there’s something else besides squeezing someone in the box.” She goes on to say, “When we quit squeezing people into boxes, we let God out of the box.” —Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
“Part of what we are invited to learn out here in the wilderness is how to metabolize that loss into compassion rather than bitterness, into welcome rather than caution.” —Sarah Bessey, (p. 78)
“God of desert prophets and unlikely messiahs,
”Help us set aside our pride enough to see how little we really know. Humble us. And then raise us up as agents of your peace. Show us that there is more to see than what we look for. More possibility. More love. More forgiveness. When we look upon those we consider enemies, help us see them as your children loved madly by you. Help others who view us as their enemies to also see us as your beloved children. Heal this nation. Heal the people in this room, Lord. Restore our sight so that we may see you in each other.
”We’re not going to bother asking politely because we are basically out of other options. Show yourself, Lord. And if you are already doing that and we are too blind to see, then grant us even bad vision, since even that would be a vast improvement.
”We ask all of this and that for which we have no words in the name of Jesus Christ, friend of sinners of every variety, Amen.” —Nadia Bolz-Weber