Episode 5 - Make a decision already

Have you ever found yourself nodding along to health advice that just confirms what you already believed? Well, strap in as we unpack the sneaky influence of confirmation bias on health research. We dissect how our previous ideas and beliefs can effect what information we see and how we interpret it. This conversation is a deep dive into the importance of getting information from multiple perspectives when researching health topics, and we share tips on how to use various search terms to make sure you're seeing a well-rounded perspective.

As we wrap up this final episode of Fact Check Your Health, we're providing you with a toolkit to be able to make empowered decisions about your health. We're truly thankful for the time we've shared with you, diving into topics that shape our decisions about our health. It's been an incredible journey, and we can't express enough thanks for your role in our podcast family. Here's to having the skills so that you can Fact Check Your Health!

Episode outline:
0:32 - What is confirmation bias?
2:15 - Examples of confirmation bias
3:45 - Tips on avoiding confirmation bias
5:34 - What do you do when you find conflicting information about a topic?
6:50 - Example of conflicting information
9:00 - How to use the information you found to make a decision about your health
10:25 - Updating your beliefs

For more information and additional resources check out the Fact Check Your Health website at https://factcheckyourhealth.squarespace.com

Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes and is not intended as medical advice. For medical advice contact a licensed medical provider.

Transcript

Episode 5

[00:00] Katie: Welcome to the fifth and final episode of Fact Check Your Health. I'm Katie, your host, and joining me as my co-host is Sydney. So the first thing that we're going to discuss today is a topic called confirmation bias. And then we're going to go through the process of how you can actually use all of the information that you've found online to come to a conclusion about what is actually best for you and your health.

[00:22] Sydney: So I actually don't know a lot about confirmation bias myself. So Katie's going to take it away, and she's going to explain to us what confirmation bias is and why it's so important.

[00:32] Katie: Yeah, so confirmation bias, I feel like, is a term that a lot of people hear, but maybe they're not exactly sure what it is.

[01:14] Sydney: Okay, so then why is confirmation bias so important, and why is it something that we want to avoid?

[01:19] Katie: So confirmation bias is going to be important to be aware of because it could keep us from developing a well-informed opinion about that health topic that we're trying to do research on. So, for example, let's say that you were trying to get some information about a health topic that you're interested in, but you're not really aware of confirmation bias. It could keep you from seeing information that's maybe super important to that decision, but that's maybe opposite to what you're currently thinking. So by recognizing that we all have this bias and by actively trying to avoid it, it can help us gather all the information out there, whether it agrees with or disagrees with what we originally thought, so that when we're making that decision, it can be a more balanced view with all of the information out there.

[02:05] Sydney: Okay, so that makes sense. So I think maybe to help everybody understand, we should give an example. Let's say that maybe you're somebody who has always believed that organic produce is better for you, and you've bought organic produce for years now. You are probably going to be more likely to pay attention to studies that say organic produce is better for you, and you're probably going to ignore studies that say there's not really a difference between organic produce and regular produce. So that's confirmation bias because you're paying attention to the studies that reinforce the preconceived notion you have that organic food is better for you. Is that right, Katie?

[02:42] Katie: Exactly. So by being aware of that confirmation bias and the fact that we're prone to want to do that, we can make a conscious effort to try to get information on both sides of an argument that we're looking to research.

[02:54] Sydney: And I think it's important to point out that it's impossible to completely eliminate all of your biases, but rather than trying to eliminate them, we can be aware of them, and we can consciously make an effort to surround ourselves with well-rounded information and not only seek out information that reinforces our biases. That way, we can have all the information needed to make a good decision with regards to our health.

[03:17] Katie: That's a really good point. Another thing to note is that social media does not help when it comes to confirmation bias. Everyone with a social media account has seen that the algorithm learns what we prefer and what we like, so it's going to continue to give us similar information that's just going to continually reinforce that belief. So whenever we're doing health research, we want to try to avoid this by seeking out information that doesn't just align with what we believe in, but also information that might be opposite to what we believe in.

[03:43] Sydney: So now that we've described what confirmation bias is and why it's so important, let's go through some ways that you can minimize confirmation bias when you're doing your health research.

[03:53] Katie: So one thing that we can do to help avoid confirmation bias when we're doing our own health research is by choosing what we type into the search bar. So what we can try to do is avoid phrases that are just going to confirm one belief. So, for example, let's say that we want to determine whether a specific brand of vitamin works for hair growth. Instead of going to the search bar and typing in "does this brand of vitamin work for hair growth?" what we want to try to type in is something like "pros and cons of vitamin A for hair growth" or "the most effective products for hair growth", or maybe even "vitamins that affect hair growth". So instead of just typing in a statement that we want to prove is correct, we can instead type in things like I just listed that are going to get results from both sides of that argument.

[04:39] Sydney: Right, exactly. So by doing a more general search, we'll be able to get more well-rounded information instead of just getting a biased answer to the question that we were looking for.

[04:50] Katie: Exactly. So to give another example, let's say for instance, that you went to Google and you typed in "Is Friends the best TV show of all time?" If you type that in, you're going to get a list of articles and reasons why Friends might be considered one of the best TV shows of all times. Whereas if instead you just typed in "best TV show of all time," then you're probably going to get a very different list of TV shows or different articles that might or might not include Friends, since what you typed into Google is a little bit more broad.

[05:19] Sydney: Exactly. So now that we've discussed what confirmation bias is and how to avoid it, let's move on to the final topic of the podcast. The final topic of the podcast is going to be a step by step process on how to compare different hypotheses or different information to reach a final decision. We've all had a situation where we look up something and then we find that there are studies or research supporting both sides of an argument. In those cases, it becomes important to be able to evaluate and compare this competing information.

[05:49] Katie: And I feel like there's a lot of these scenarios out there that we can all think of, or that we've experienced where we go to look something up, let's say it's labels on food. So, you know, we see someone talking about an ingredient that's in a product that we typically buy at the grocery store. So you go online and you try to look up that item or that ingredient. And what's going to happen is that you're going to probably find conflicting information. So you're going to see one person saying that this ingredient is safe and that there's no need to worry about it. And then you might see another person who says this ingredient is awful and make sure that you stay away from it. So that's just one scenario, but I'm sure you can imagine other scenarios where this is also the case, but the good thing is that there are ways that you can combine that information together from the different sources that you're seeing to be able to figure out, you know, what is true, what should I believe, and what decision should I actually make?

[06:44] Sydney: I think it would make a little more sense to everyone if we took an example and kind of went through the steps on how you complete this process. So let's use the example of the keto diet.

[06:53] Katie: So let's say you're someone who needs to lose weight because of a new health condition that you were recently diagnosed with. So you start looking into different options and you're considering the keto diet. The first step that you'd want to do whenever you have a topic like that, that has conflicting information is to consider the different possibilities to answer that question. So in the case of the keto diet, here are a few ideas that you could be considering. The first idea might be that the keto diet would be an effective way for you to lose weight. The next idea might be that the keto diet would not be an effective way for you to lose weight. And then the third idea might be that the keto diet could potentially have some negative impacts on your health considering your current health situation.

[07:35] Sydney: By recognizing these different possibilities, we can avoid just assuming that there's one correct answer, and then we can try to find information to decide which answer is the most correct and the best for us in that particular scenario.

[07:48] Katie: So then, once you've considered the different options or possibilities, the next step is to gather relevant information. To do this, you want to try to search for scientific articles or studies, like we talked about in Episodes 1 and 2, and that's really going to help us get all the information that we need to consider later when weighing those different options.

[08:08] Sydney: Once you have the different ideas and once you've gathered the research that supports the different sides, we can move on to the third step of the process. For the third step, what we want to do is carefully examine the research that we found. This includes all of the things that we talked about in Episodes 3 and 4. So we really just want to evaluate the studies based on these different criteria that we talked about in those episodes.

[08:32] Katie: Exactly. Do you want to give a brief refresher on those things that we covered in Episode 3 and 4?

[08:37] Sydney: Yeah, for sure. If you'll remember, you want to think about the study type and whether it is a randomized controlled trial. Then you want to think about whether the results are statistically significant or clinically significant. You also want to consider whether there are multiple studies that are high quality that agree on a conclusion. If you find one study with a random finding, then you shouldn't hold a lot of weight to that; you need multiple studies that agree on your conclusion. And lastly, you want to look at who conducted the studies and how credible they are. Studies that are done by well-respected scientists and that are published in good scientific journals are generally considered to be more trustworthy. There's no guarantee at the end of the day, but it can be a helpful thing to consider when you're torn between options.

[09:17] Katie: Exactly. So basically, by looking at all of those things, we can then determine the strength of the different studies, and then we can almost make a pro-con list to weigh the different evidence. So let's say, for example, that we had a lot of studies with a lot of good information that supported the first idea, the idea that the keto diet was good for weight loss. If most of our studies back that up, then you probably want to come to the conclusion that the keto diet is something that you'd want to try for your weight loss at that time. Whereas let's say, once you gathered all of that research and you started looking at it, you found that the majority of the research actually supported the second idea that the keto diet wasn't as good for your weight loss. If that was the case, then you'd probably want to come to the opposite conclusion that the keto diet wouldn't be the option that you'd want to choose right then. So by listing out all the information that we found and then weighing that evidence against each other, you could make a better decision about what was best for you and your health at that time based on the information that you found.

[10:21] Sydney: So, in summary, once you've gathered the relevant studies and you have weighed the reliability and the strength of the studies, you can then use that information to come to your decision.

[10:30] Katie: Exactly. And that's kind of the power of this process; it helps us take this confusing world and simplify it down so that we can make informed decisions. And then we can always go back and update those decisions. So maybe you learn new information, or maybe something about your life or your health changes, or new technologies come out—whatever it is, we can then go back, and we can change that decision, and we can reweigh those benefits and risks. So the power is that this just helps us move beyond that more simplistic thinking and helps us embrace a more informed decision-making process based on all of the available evidence out there. We hope that this final episode leaves you equipped with all the tools that you need to be able to navigate the world of health research and be able to challenge your biases and ultimately make informed decisions about your health.

[11:19] Sydney: So that concludes our journey. We want to thank you guys for hanging out with us these past five episodes, and we hope that you've learned a lot and that you're able to take this information and apply it to your life in a meaningful and helpful way.

[11:29] Katie: So with that, thank you for being a part of the Fact Check Your Health community.