The Elephant and the Mouse

Chapter 4Our Illusions, Myths, and Mindsets

Each of us is a collection of reality, lived experiences, learned knowledge, and our own set of illusions, myths, and mindsets. Many of those illusions, myths, and mindsets occur from a combination of confirmation bias and how we think the world works. Confirmation bias is basically our need to confirm that which we already believe about someone or something. It is not “seeing is believing,” but rather “believing is seeing.” We give more weight to evidence, impressions, or facts that are consistent with our held beliefs, and attribute less importance and credence to that which is contrary to what we already believe.

Think about what many people assume about women drivers, for example. If someone does something stupid in the car in front of you and you see the driver is a woman, you might think, “Of course there's a woman behind the wheel!” You didn't notice the five men who were responsible for idiotic driving in front of you at other times.

Basically, illusions, myths, and mindsets make up parts of what we believe, some of which may be true, and others are simply an accumulation of what we have heard from others (such as from parents, on social media, or what our religion instructs us). They are what we use to justify how we treat or think about someone, and what gets affirmed or rewarded based on these beliefs.

This chapter will ...