Air Conditioner
On a hot summer day, a bear and a rabbit were doing their homework in a room with an air conditioner.
They were tired, and they wanted to eat some ice cream. They decided to go to an ice cream shop near the house.
Because the bear left the room and had kept the air conditioner turned on, the rabbit screamed at him,
“Turn off the air conditioner! It uses too much electricity !”
The bear said,
“In today's news I heard that it uses more electricity if you turn the air conditioner on and off frequently.”
However, the rabbit didn't want to hear it anymore.
“No, no, no!! You should turn off the air conditioner when you leave the room!”
The bear was at a loss for words.
The rabbit continued,
“I have evidence. My brother had left the air conditioner on all the summer, and he had to give up some meals to pay the electricity bill.”
The rabbit paused,
“And my grandmother also said so!”
The bear was overwhelmed.
Their lion friend entered the room.
“What’s up? Are you arguing?”
The rabbit said,
“Hey, Lion! We should turn the air conditioner off every time we leave the room, right? Bear says we should keep it turned on!”
The lion said,
“You are right, Rabbit.”
The rabbit was happy to hear that. But the lion continued,
“Bear is right, too.”
The bear was surprised. The rabbit was even more surprised.
“If you leave the room for a little while, it's better to leave the air conditioner on. However, you should turn it off if you leave the room for a long time."
The lion’s house is an electronics store. So, the lion has much knowledge about such topic.
“Rabbit, you should listen to Bear. Sometimes a different opinion can seem wrong, but that's not always the case. You should listen to not only the same opinion, but also different one.”
The rabbit apologized to Bear.
“I’m sorry, bear. I will listen to you more.”
The bear smiled and said,
“That’s ok! Now let’s go and eat ice cream together!”
Commentary
When your beliefs are questioned by others and counterarguments are given, you oftentimes assume only your opinions are correct.
This is called backfire effect or entrenchment.
In this story, the bear tried to change the rabbit’s belief that air conditioners should be turned off whenever there is no one in the room. However, the rabbit did not listen to the bear's opinion. This phenomenon is an example of the backfire effect or entrenchment.
To accept only some information which support one’s opinion ignoring other opinions which are unfavorable for them is called cherry picking or confirmation bias.
In this story, the rabbit believes her grandmother’s opinion because it supports her idea, but she did not believe the bear.
This is cherry picking or confirmation bias.
Reference："The Backfire Effect"
"Confirmation Bias"
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