Examples Of Confirmation Bias In Oedipus The King

Confirmation bias – a vivid term brilliantly coined by English psychologist Peter Watson. In layman’s terms, it describes the human mindset, stating that we humans often choose to favor knowledge that supports our narrative, and dislodge information that does the opposite. Many of us go through this every day, choosing what information to process, selecting the ones that will not lead to a miserable day. Essentially, confirmation bias can come down to two different aspects – ignorance and blindness. On one hand, ignorance, or the lack of knowledge of the truth, leads us to believe that our narrative must be true, since there is no evidence given to us to say otherwise, making us more prone to not believing rebutting information. On the flip

Because of this, our confirmation bias kicks in, and we choose to ignore little details that would otherwise completely rebut our hopeless illusion. This idea ties back to the motif of the paradox of blindness, where even though we are able to see the world, we ignore the hints and signs that it gives us, trapping our mind to believe what we want to believe. This paradox of blindness disallows us to see the truth, encouraging us to let our imagination run wild. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus has this hamartia of blindness, forcing him to create his own world in his head. Believing he was truly the hero of Thebes, he sought to save if from a devious plague, planning to “not stop till” (Oedipus, pg. 11) he “emerges” (Oedipus, pg. 11) with the truth of the murderer of Laius. Just like Oedipus, we humans suffer from a hero complex, believing that we are the center of attention and the savior of all problems. Unfortunately, this guides us through the wrong path, as the false hope we create comes at the expense of those around us. Often, when we

That theme would be to always think before you act. Whenever you are about to perform a risky task, or attempt an impossible challenge, always think about the consequences before you commit your actions. Do not just put an illusion in your head that everything will be alright, because more often than not, things go wrong without thought put in. We can see this example in Oedipus. If Oedipus just stopped for a moment to consider what Tiresias’ warning was, he likely would have quit his search for the killer, and this likely would have saved the life of his wife/mother and saved his own eyes from being squashed. However, because of his blindness and his unwillingness to consider the consequences of pursuing the killer, Oedipus received these tragedies. This theme is also applicable to the real world. There are two specific people that first come to mind that relate to thinking before acting, one not thinking and one thinking. Those two people are Adolf Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi, two prominent figures in history, although Hitler for the wrong reasons. Let us dive into Hitler first. This head of the Nazi Party wanted one thing – for Germany to thrive and be the best country in the world. One way he thought he could achieve this is to exterminate all the Jews in the German land of Europe. Throughout