In the morning, Ju-yeong wanted to put on her wristwatch but couldn’t find it anywhere. Suddenly, she remembered that she left it in her classroom desk drawer the previous day before going to gym class. As soon as she arrived at school, she looked for it in the drawer first, however, it was not there. Since she bought it with the allowance she had saved up for a long time, she was very upset. From that time, finding the watch was all she thought about. After thinking it over, she remembered that Mi-jeong, her classmate, had mentioned that she liked the watch and asked her if she could try it on. Additionally, it was suspicious that during gym class, she went back to the classroom, claiming that she had forgotten something. Considering this, Ju-yeong jumped to the conclusion that Mi-jeong must have had taken her watch. When another friend mentioned to Ju-yeong that she might have left it at home, she loudly insisted that she had not left it there. When she arrived home, her younger sister returned the watch to her, saying that she was sorry for borrowing it without mentioning a word. Ju-yeong was overwhelmed with shame.
In order to maintain that the conclusion we have made is right, we tend to accept the proof that supports it but exclude what is against it. Such a psychological phenomenon is called “confirmation bias.” If we believe as we want to believe, we may distort reality. In order not to fall in the error of “confirmation bias,” we should examine ourselves to see if our thoughts are indeed fair and unbiased or have any inconsistencies.