"The pink banana phenomenon". What do you guys make of this?
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Original Question
Is this some kind of new psychological phenomenon, or type of bias?
I was talking with one of my friends who has some strong biases against illegal immigration in the U.S. So I decided to create a list of questions to figure out what was going on here, and the questions disturbingly verify my suspicions.
So here was my questions and their results. What do you guys make of it?
I Hold up a banana, and I ask my friend, "what color is this banana?"
My friend says, "Its yellow."
I then say, very good its yellow. Now, "how do you know its yellow?"
My friend says, "because I can see that its yellow." I tell him, "yes, and that's called evidence, you know its yellow because of evidence", and my friend agreed.
Now, I asked my friend, "imagine that someone in power told you that if you say the banana is pink he could then get rid of all the illegal immigrants. What color would the banana be then?"
My friend says, "well then I would say that the banana is pink."
Then I asked him, "Do you think you're lying, or do you think you're not lying about the color?
My friend looks confused and says, "I don't understand?"
Then I ask him, "If it gets you what you want, does that make it true that the banana is pink?"
My friend says, "If you believe it then it's true."
Then I ask him, "so under that scenario then to you its pink?"
My friend says, "yes."
After running this test, I realized that a lot of people think this way when it comes to politics. They think that whatever benefits their own self interest and their political agenda is true, and what doesn't is false. Their standards for what's true and false is not evidence, but rather what benefits them personally or not. They also seem to actually believe their own lies they make up bc if the lie benefits them then they really do think its true. This can also explain Trump's big lie and other lies that he seems to actually believe to be true. What is this, why does it seem so alien to me and what can we do about this psychological phenomenon that produces mass delusion and demagogue authoritarian obedience?
And when I tried to explain to him that this line of thinking was irrational and delusional, he told me 'everyone thinks this way, not just me." Then I told him, "well I don't", he then said, "yeah not you, but most people do."
How chilling is this?
Comments on Question
Answers
4This example seems kind of extreme, but what I see here is wishful thinking - he wants the banana to be pink for its desired outcome, therefore it is. Trying to justify it by saying that his belief makes it true seems like a case of ad hoc rescue .
But, the real issue, is why does he think this way. I can see a few cognitive biases at play here. A lot of distorted political thinking is, to some degree, the result of Confirmation Bias. People will readily accept information that supports their pre-existing views, and dismiss evidence that doesn't. In this case I also see Outcome Bias in your friend's argument - they seem so fixated on the idea of illegal immigrants being gone that they don't really care how illogical the argument to get there is.
I do see stuff like this pretty often, albeit to a less extreme degree. When people are trying to support a point, they often won't gather evidence, but will simply make something up which fits within their world view. Usually it's something that at least sounds plausible if you don't think about it too hard.
Kind of hard to say what we as individuals can really do about it. But, my own experience, I was raised as a pretty hardline conservative in a politically mixed area, and I think the fact that I did have my opinion challenged by people I knew on a regular basis, and would get called out when I said something that was false or illogical, really primed me for having to consider my opinions more carefully, which did lead me to change a lot of them. Really, I think that if social media algorithms were tuned in a way to reduce echo chambers and information silos, that would really go a long way.
Thr premise ridiculous. You take stance against illegal immigration and try to frame it as political bias. The whole thingg must violate many aspects of logic. I came to this site to aid in furthering my knowledge of logical fallacies only to be greated with socialists pushing anti west criminality.
So, according to your amusingly perplexing experiment, a banana's color is less about accurate perception and more a hostage to personal gain or political agenda. Well, someone needs to tell those color-blind chameleons out there, their lives just got more confusing!
The behavior you're describing can fall under the broad category of cognitive biases. The bias du jour here appears to be 'motivated reasoning'. It's where our pink banana fan would rather live in a world where everything is colored by the lens of his beliefs, wishes, and benefits, even if it indeed clashes with reality's season palette, leading to, letâs say, an extreme form of alternate 'fruit reality.' His 'banana republic' worldview, if you may.
Why is this alien to you? Well, perhaps because you tend to base your critical thinking on evidence rather than wishful color schemes. It's like being the only sober guy at a Pink Floyd concert; you can see all the weird stuff happen, but you just can't join in on 'seeing' the pink elephants.
How to deal with this phenomenon? Well dear inquirer, it's tricky but not impossible. The answer is to do what you did - question and educate. Swap pink bananas for yellow ones, challenge these beliefs, and show them that reality isnât a fruit salad bar where you can pick and choose your colours. Or offer them rose-colored glasses; it's only fair when they're dealing with a pink banana underworld!
So don't despair, the Pink Banana Phenomenon is neither infectious nor incurable. Imagine, people once believed the earth was flat, till someone sailed and didnât fall into an abyss. Hang in there, stick to your yellow bananas. In the world of infinite monkey theorem, one day, the monkey's gonna see the banana for what it is - yellow!
That's an example of appeal to consequences .
I'm not sure whether he trully BELIEVES that the banana is pink or just SAY it is pink.
If it's the former then indeed it's unbelievable that some people do that.
As for Trump, I think he follows Winston Churchil's advice "To convince them, you must yourself believe" or as Makiavelli suggested "to appear to be", rather than actually be who you're telling to be.
The line that confused me though was, "If you believe it then it's true"; if you believe it then it just means you're not lying - that doesn't make it true. I'm still reluctant to believe that they can't actually distinguish between those two. Could it be that they just SAY it is pink rather than actually BELIEVE it is pink?
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What’s interesting is that many on both sides of the aisle are guilty of the same confirmation bias. You refer to the Trump zealots, which is fine, but as Bill Maher has lately pointed out, only one way of thinking is allowed on the left.
If there’s accusations against Biden, they’re dismissed as coming from MAGA Republicans. If there’s accusations against Trump, they’re assumed true whether or not there’s evidence.