The mind plays tricks on man, remembering what it wants and forgetting other bits of information that is crucial to the understanding of the whole person or experience. In research, this causes problems when a portion of the study data requires individuals to recall events or feelings experienced surrounding the topic. The comment that one remembers of someone bulling them is likely true as the brain has a harder time forgetting unpleasant things (Foley 2010). The less accurate comment of “I was never the bully” has more likelihood of being false as the individual may have received enjoyment out of bullying and fails to remember the details of those accounts (Foley 2010). The scenario is a form of self-delusion, self-justification, and self-righteousness; the mind remembers the preferred item and overlooks what it no longer wants to see as the reality. Of course, man can see the reality in others, but will actively avoid the less pleasant memories of their own by ignoring them or perceiving them incorrectly.
Other times the cognitive bias, affects the person’s ability to answer a straightforward question honestly. The dishonesty is not due to the intentional withholding of the truth, but a process that occurs in one’s mind the subjective filters of one’s attitudes, beliefs, and experiences which causes a skewing of the facts based on the interpretation of reality.
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The distortions of reality are nearly impossible to avoid and rarely done intentionally, however: they significantly alter the results of the studies (Thinda 2009). The ability to measure in an objective manner the human perception, experience, and memory suffers lost from compromising the data to certain degrees by the self-deception (Jeffrey 2011). The scenario of the person stating they never bullied anyone else, is such a bold claim to make one begins to suspect it is not entirely true. In the case of bullying, a number of ways to bully a person exist that leaves the answer open for discussion. Verbal, psychological, emotional, physical, and sexual bullying is the larger categories to define bullying and often occur without fully understanding the role their words or actions play in the bullying. To say unequivocally that they never bullied, their brain may have filtered their response to meet the need to protect or limit the types of bullying found in its selection of bullying memories (Gross 2001).
Hindsight is another cognitive process of seeing the facts differently after the event that hinders one’s ability to present the information in a wholly accurate manner (Pohl 2007). Another manner of cognitive bias includes modification due to extreme stress related to the event MacLeod, Koster, & Fox 2009). Lost is the ability to recollect accurately, and as such, it fails to provide reliable information in research. While there are several ways to determine the level of accuracy of the statements or recollections, it is time consuming and not wholly reliable, again based on the interpretation of the additional facts. This is a subjective form of value and is less reliable than other forms of data (Evans 2003).
For a researcher, it is best to have other sources of data to base ones study on instead of relying solely on subjective and potentially unreliable information. For example, showing the participants a video of the different types of bullying and asking them which scene they experienced or perpetrated previously. The use of another source supports the participant’s statements and provides more quantitative support for the claims. While there is the value in the information even with cognitive bias involved, it is best to identify this limitation in the research to inform all readers.
- Evans, (2003) In two minds: dual-process accounts of reasoning, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 7, no. 10, 454-459.
- Foley,M (2010) The Age of Absurdity, London, Simon & Schuster.
- Gross, J. J. (2001) Emotion Regulation in Adulthood: Timing Is Everything, Current Directions in Psychological Science December 2001 vol. 10 no. 6 pp. 214-219.
- Jeffrey, L. (2011) Critical Evaluation of Research Materials, Durham University.
- MacLeod, C, Koster, E.H.W., & Fox, E (2009) Whither Cognitive Bias Modification Research? Commentary on the Special Section Articles, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 118 no.1, pp. 89-99
- Pohl.R.F (2077) Ways to Assess Hindsight bias Social Cognition vol. 25 no.1 pp. 14-32.
- Thinda, S (2009) Cognitive Blas in Emotional Research ( www.sigmundconsulting.com).
