Everything has two sides to it. We typically make the cognitive bias in our belief that the first story that we hear is always the truth. This is how we get trapped in our deep beliefs. If a child grows up to be vehemently racist, it’s not because of what he believes is right. It’s the thing that was taught to him first. It’s the “right” perspective because the child is blind to the other side of the coin, or its opposite.

We always want to show others the best parts of ourselves. It’s the reason why we dress up for interviews and first dates. They say that the first impression is the most important. What we are saying is that we should make sure people see the good sides of us first, so that they believe we are good even when we are bad. The first impression is never a reflection of reality.

Yet, we greet each other with the expectation of perfection because we are afraid people will see us in a bad light. It makes sense (even though it’s dumb). In contrast, if we have a bad impression, that impression is forever who we are. If you deem your teammate to be incompetent, that person is forever incompetent. It doesn’t matter what that person does. Your first impression is the right impression. Any dissonance from this idea makes us wrong. Our ego won’t allow us to be wrong.

Wrongly Convicted

This type of thinking has major consequences. Especially when it comes to our justice system. We’d like to believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but we usually take the side of the story we hear first. If a public figure gets mixed in some dealings, we typically cancel this person without hearing any words from their story. In most cases, people can’t recover because of how sullied their name has been through gossip.

Remember Amanda Knox? In 2007, Amanda Knox was wrongfully convicted of murdering her roommate in Italy, Meredith Kercher. Knox, along with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was arrested after finding Kercher dead in their shared apartment. Without the facts, the Italian media quickly led with the idea that Knox murdered Kercher. The motive was seemingly sex-driven. Their only evidence was Knox’s detached demeanor during questioning. Police and prosecutors also drove a narrative of guilt despite a lack of evidence connecting her to the crime.

The story of guilt spread rapidly through the media which led to her conviction in 2009. She was convicted despite another man, Rudy Guede, having been convicted for the crime based on forensic evidence. Knox and Sollecito lost four years of their lives before the convictions were overturned due to incomplete and flawed evidence. Even though she has been acquitted the stench of guilt has never really rubbed off as her name has been dragged through the mud for many years. This was only because made-up stories of her guilt were heard first. The fact that the media and the justice system actively tried to prove her guilt rather than her innocence is a problem in itself.

What Should We Do?

How do we end this cognitive bias? We have to remember that truth is not one-sided. Truth is somewhere in the middle. To get to the middle, you must understand the other side. If you took debate in school, the teacher would encourage students to debate both sides of a single topic. I’m not a real fan of education, but this is something we can take with us throughout our lives. When we hear something that’s heavily waited to one perspective, I hope we will do our due diligence in understanding the other. If we don’t the consequences will continue to be devastating. Whether it be sentencing a person to 4 years in prison, or not offering a job because of the vibes of a 30-minute call.

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