Money Listens

When you’re browsing at a bookstore, don’t you tend to look at the stuff that agrees with you? You already have your mind made up. You know where you stand on an issue. You know that you need to do your part on global warming, so you gravitate toward books such as Good Green Homes and You Can Prevent Global Warming (and Save Money): 51 Easy Ways. If you see a book titled Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, you bypass it.

You know that buying a home is a smart idea. So if you see the book Who Says You Can’t Buy a Home!: How to Put Credit Problems, Down Payment Challenges, and Income Issues Behind You, you grab it. You’re not going to read a book that tells you to save up for a down payment first, or wait until your income is higher. Why? Because that’s not what you want to hear.

Psychologists call this tendency to seek information that agrees with us confirmatory bias. When we ask for advice we are biased toward sources that “confirm” what we “know.” Is this the best way to make decisions? Probably not. We should seek out people who have the opposite view, and evaluate their thinking. If you can’t find fault with their position, perhaps you don’t “know” as much as you think.

One of the hardest things to do is to change our minds about what we “know.” Part of this is our reluctance to admit being wrong, and part is the difficulty of breaking habits. I would even say the more certain you are of a position, the more “everyone” agrees with you, the more you need to seek opposing views. If you can understand and refute the opposing view, you can have confidence in your decision.

I enjoy reading about investing in mutual funds, about not using credit cards, and about following a budget. These are all issues I “know.” Next time I’m reading blogs, I’ll pick some that discuss investing in things other than mutual funds, or sites that favor credit cards. (I’ll need to hunt for them, they sure aren’t in my Favorites.) Or maybe I’ll read some books by authors I’m not familiar with. After all, how many times can I read those Ben Stein books. I think I can learn more about myself by listening to people who disagree with me.

Anyone disagree with this? I’m ready to listen.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Communication, Educate Yourself. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.