The Lie We Tell Ourselves to Feel Safe - Confirmation Bias Certainty and the search for signs

July 21 · 45 min · 32.7 MB

0:00-45:24

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Why do we trust the signs that confirm what we already believe — and ignore the ones that don't?

In this episode, Matilda takes a hard look at confirmation bias — the mental shortcut that shapes everything from the readings we trust, to the news we consume, to who we vote for, to how we read our own relationships. Drawing on her background in behavioural economics, she unpacks the psychology behind the Barnum effect, cold reading, and why so much of what passes for "evidence" in the psychic and spiritual world is really just the sitter's own mind doing the work.

From there, the conversation moves into how the same bias plays out in politics and media — why facts alone rarely change a belief tied to identity — and into the quieter, more personal ways it shows up in our everyday lives and relationships.

But underneath all of it sits a bigger question: why do we reach for certainty in the first place? Matilda explores the psychology of our discomfort with not-knowing, and why a false certainty can feel safer than an honest question. The episode closes with a guided meditation on sitting with the unresolved — a practice in tolerating uncertainty without rushing to fill it.

A more reflective, personal episode — and an honest one, including a candid look at Matilda's own field.

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