{"id":40891,"date":"2018-09-25T17:59:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T14:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=40891"},"modified":"2022-04-24T18:21:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T15:21:50","slug":"pharaohs-confirmation-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/pharaohs-confirmation-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharaoh\u2019s Confirmation Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[591,386],"acf":{"old_id":"40891","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38439,"related_cahpter":"57","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Each time we resist change, we further lose our ability to see contradictory facts ","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\">Despite Moses and Aaron\u2019s signs and wonders, Pharaoh repeatedly \u201chardens his heart\u201d and refuses to release his Israelite slaves.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\">What does it mean to \u201charden one\u2019s heart\u201d and why does the Torah first say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart and later say that God hardened Pharaoh\u2019s heart?<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\">A close reading of the text shows how those in power may rationalize their decisions\u2014even disastrous decisions\u2014in order to avoid acknowledging past mistakes. Pharaoh compounds his initial mistakes by becoming further entrenched in his determination not to let the slaves go free.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\">There is an important lesson in how mindsets become prisons. This phenomenon is called \u201cconfirmation bias\u201d: when presented with a diversity of information, we selectively filter out anything that does not corroborate past experience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\">In Pharaoh\u2019s case, this is made much easier by the fact that Aaron and Moses start out with easily replicated tricks. Once assured that his own magicians can reproduce their \u201csigns and wonders\u201d, Pharaoh has no reason to see that anything unusual is afoot. The challenge to the status quo can be reasoned away.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\">Even when things escalate to a plague of lice, which Pharaoh\u2019s court wizards are unable to reproduce, Pharaoh continues to \u201cstrengthen his heart.\u201d Habits of thought are hard to break. Only when a plague strikes which the court wizards not only can\u2019t reproduce, but from which they can\u2019t even save themselves, does the text say, \u201c<em>God<\/em> strengthened Pharaoh\u2019s heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\">Pharaoh\u2019s problem is well-known to psychologists. Once a way of thinking becomes habituated, each time we resist change, we further lose our ability to see contradictory facts. Pharaoh\u2019s dismissal of the evidence at hand was at first a conscious act, but by this point, it\u2019s out of his hands; he has become a slave of his own \u201cconcept\u201d and can no longer see what is obvious to everyone else.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\">And of course, what happened to Pharaoh in the realm of the mind had happened to Egyptian society in a more concrete sense. They had institutionalized slavery. It had become a habit, a permanent feature of their economy, which they could not leave behind of their own free will. The hardening of Pharaoh\u2019s heart is a sign that what happens next is a miracle. It is a lesson in seeing God in the improbable and seemingly impossible.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":104303,"id":104303,"title":"-62656af8f39ed--62656af8f39eeex7-brain gears bias thought.jpg","filename":"62656af8f39ed-62656af8f39eeex7-brain-gears-bias-thought.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62656af8f39ed-62656af8f39eeex7-brain-gears-bias-thought.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/pharaohs-confirmation-bias\/62656af8f39ed-62656af8f39eeex7-brain-gears-bias-thought-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"62656af8f39ed-62656af8f39eeex7-brain-gears-bias-thought-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":40891,"date":"2022-04-24 15:21:29","modified":"2023-05-14 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