2020: A Perception of Disaster

Now that the year 2020 is coming to a close, the world seems to be breathing a collective sigh of relief. It has certainly felt like it was 'bad news month' after 'bad news month'. There have been countless memes making light of this year and the disasters it has brought.

It can't be denied that 2020 has been epic in featuring some pretty disastrous and significant events all around the globe, the most obvious being the coronavirus pandemic that led entire cities and countries into total lockdown for months on end. Adding to this, we can all think of at least 1 or 2 major personal events in our own lives that have taken place in 2020, whether they be a consequence of the pandemic or not. So it's no wonder we are all counting down the days to the end of the year 2020, as if it's personally responsible for all our 'bad luck'. But is that truly the case, or could this be our perception of things?

Psychologists refer to a type of perceptual bias, or error in our thinking, called Confirmation Bias. This occurs when our preconceptions and expectations shape how we see the world, and what sort of information we choose to pay attention to. When we fall into the trap of confirmation bias, we tend to look for information that will support what we already believe and ignore or reject data that goes against our beliefs. For example, if you have the preconception that 'all women are bad drivers' then you are more likely to focus on information that confirms your expectations i.e. you will notice more times when women make mistakes on the road and dismiss or ignore instances when they don't. Confirmation bias is not something we are necessarily aware that we are doing, it is an automatic thinking process that happens very subtly.

So how may confirmation bias have influenced us this year? We can argue that the global pandemic, a major stressful event, created an expectation that 2020 = disaster. If this was our expectation then anytime we heard something bad on the news it would confirm this idea. And no doubt the media played a part in this by constantly bombarding us with bad news events. Confirmation bias also occurs in the form of biased searching for information and biased favouring of information, meaning that people search for information that confirms preexisting beliefs and also give more weight to information that supports their beliefs. So without realising, we may have been biased towards giving more importance to the world events that confirm that 2020 = disaster, and less importance to news that would go against this idea. If some of the worldwide disasters, as well as our own personal events, had happened on any other given year where there wasn't a pandemic, we may have just put it down to 'life happens'. That's because, bad things can happen anytime, any year. However, a pandemic going on in the background makes us more sensitive. It's like our cup is already full from the stress of coronavirus and it's impact, that adding even one more stressful event can lead to our cup overflowing.

Confirmation bias applies to our everyday lives in other ways, and affects how we feel. For instance, if your belief about yourself is 'I'm stupid' you may be biased towards looking for things that confirm this, like noticing the one question you got wrong in a test instead of the 9 you got right. If you are constantly focussing on information that confirms your belief that "i'm stupid" you will no doubt feel depressed, angry, and have a sense of failure.

The good news is that we can change our biased thinking by becoming consciously aware of our thoughts and reasoning process. For example, rather than taking stock of all the negative things that have happened in your life this year, take a moment to consider what positive and good things that may have happened, even if they seem to be small or insignificant. Constantly checking in with yourself and asking whether you are distorting the information you process, is a work in progress. By continuing to practise this, you will be able to develop a more balanced view and perspective, and can in turn have a positive impact on how you feel.