How Confirmation Bias Can Affect Your Relationship

Oftentimes when I work with my Prepare & Enrich clients who are frustrated with each other, I introduce the concept of confirmation bias. According to Brittanica.com confirmation bias is  “a person’s tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs”. Another way I put this is, “are you looking for the gold or garbage in your significant other?” People can have the tendency to “look for the garbage” in others in order to confirm what they already believe and to help build their case AGAINST them, so to speak. To combat this, I ask my clients to “look for the gold” and start to building their case FOR their partner instead. I encourage them to flip the script on confirmation bias and to start looking for confirmation of their significant others’ admirable traits instead.