Tuesday, July 04, 2017

Self-confirming conclusions

There are decisions we reach about people in our minds that, once formed, become the lens through which we see them. There will always be evidence to support these conclusions, so our opinion of them finds never-ending validation.

A minority MLB umpire is saying that an MLB executive decided, decades ago when they were in adversarial roles in an in-game situation, that the ump was seeking to draw attention to himself. Many years later, this observation has been part of the umpire's annual evaluation by the executive. If you believe something like this about a person, they will probably never be able to convince you that you're mistaken.

But the individual being judged can also have a blind spot about whether there is any truth in the accusation, and needs to have an honest motivation to do what they can about it, even knowing that there is likely no way they'll ever be able to convince the person judging them of what they have learned and changed about themselves.

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