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Confirmation Bias
(Your Brain Plays Favorites)

Ever notice how once you decide someone's rude, everything they do afterward seems to prove it? That's confirmation bias: your brain quietly collecting evidence for whatever it already believes. It shapes our decisions, outlook, and how people interpret you long before anyone notices it's happening. This upSKILL is a look at how this bias works, and how to use it in your favor instead of working against you. 
   6:51 Watch Time [Week 56 from the Weekly upSKILL series]
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 Real Help 

Solve these 'people problems'

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For upSKILLers:

  • Feeling like there's nothing you can do once a patient has already decided how they feel about you
  • Losing confidence after one rough interaction, even when everything else went well
  • Assuming a first impression is fixed and out of your control
  • Remembering that early warmth and confidence shape what a patient's brain looks for later
  • Knowing that the first few moments of an interaction carry more weight than you might realize
  • Using this same awareness with teammates, friends, and family, not just patients

For Leaders:

  • Team members with strong clinical skills who still get more complaints than others
  • Patients forming a lasting opinion of the organization within the first few seconds of an interaction
  • Assuming a negative review or complaint is only about what actually went wrong
  • Helping team members understand why the first impression matters
  • Coaching team members to lead with likability and warmth before anything else happens
  • Building a culture where every team member sets a positive first impression on purpose
 Data 

It's science

Research on how people test their own beliefs found that we naturally seek out information that confirms what we already think, and overlook what doesn't.(1)
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This is where the term "confirmation bias" comes from, and it means our brain does this automatically, even when we're sure we're being objective.
In a well known Stanford study, people on opposite sides of a controversial issue were given the exact same research to review, and both sides walked away more convinced they were right.(2)
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Two people can look at the same information and use it to confirm two completely different conclusions.
A wide ranging review of confirmation bias research found that it shapes decisions, viewpoints, and the impressions we form of new people, especially once emotion is already involved.(3)
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Our first reaction, positive or negative, often decides what "evidence" we let ourselves notice afterward.
 Note 

From The Experts

"Those team members rarely received negative patient reviews or complaints, even though sometimes they may not have been as technically proficient as the others. It is because they made patients instantly decide that they were likable, caring, and trustworthy, and the patients' brains backed that up, even when mistakes were made or there were hiccups in the process."
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- Christine & Lauren, The Patient Whisperers
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 SERIES 

This is adapted from Weekly: Mastering Soft Skills

by The Patient Whisperers:
Soft skills that make work and life better.
For everyone who works with patients - or interacts with humans.

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 WHO 

Meet the experts

The Patient Whisperers
Christine Scarlett
& Lauren Weaver
Former practice leaders leading change by bringing relational intelligence, soft skills + emotional connection into healthcare as authors, speakers, and upSKILL instructors. 
Get to know them here or connect on social media:
Christine Scarlett
Former CMO
& Director of Patient Experience
From counseling patients, to Director of Patient Experience, to CMO, Christine's worn nearly every 'hat' in a healthcare practice. The driving force? Her love for people... creating exceptional patient experiences and empowering those who serve them.
Lauren Weaver
Former
Director of Brand Development
Bringing her PR, branding, social media influencer status, and love of storytelling with her, Lauren turned how we market and build a brand for ourselves in healthcare upside down by redefining how we connect with our patients, both in practice and online.
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(1) Wason, P. C. (1960). "On the Failure to Eliminate Hypothesis in a Conceptual Task." Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12(3), 129-140. (2) Lord, C. G., Ross, L., & Lepper, M. R. (1979). "Biased Assimilation and Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(11), 2098-2109. (3) Nickerson, R. S. (1998). "Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises." Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175-220.