Psychology in Everyday Life

Exploring the science behind how we think, feel and behave.

Why Our Brains Love Certainty – And Why That's Sometimes a Problem

Have you ever read a headline and thought, "That confirms exactly what I've been saying"? Or dismissed an opposing viewpoint before you've fully considered the evidence? Most of us like to think we make decisions rationally, but psychology suggests our brains are naturally drawn towards certainty and familiar ideas.

To help us navigate an increasingly complex world, our minds rely on mental shortcuts that make everyday decision-making quicker and more efficient. While these shortcuts are usually helpful, they can also influence how we interpret information, whom we trust, and how willing we are to change our minds. Understanding these psychological processes is more important than ever in an age of 24-hour news, social media and information overload.

One of the best-known cognitive biases is confirmation bias. Psychologist Raymond Nickerson (1998) described this as our tendency to seek out, interpret and remember information in ways that reinforce what we already believe. Importantly, confirmation bias is not a sign of poor judgement or low intelligence—it affects all of us, regardless of our education, profession or political views.

Imagine searching online for information about a controversial topic. Most of us are more likely to click on articles whose headlines already align with our existing opinions. Once we've read those articles, we often feel even more confident that our original view was correct. Rather than broadening our understanding, we may unintentionally reinforce what we already think.

Closely related to confirmation bias is motivated reasoning. Ziva Kunda (1990) argued that our reasoning is often influenced by what we want to believe as much as by the evidence itself. Rather than evaluating information completely objectively, we may unconsciously interpret it in ways that protect our existing beliefs, values or sense of identity. In other words, we don't always ask whether something is true. We ask, often without realising it, "Does this fit with what I already believe?"

These psychological processes become particularly noticeable on social media. Most online platforms are designed to show us content similar to what we have previously engaged with. Over time, this can create what psychologists and communication researchers describe as echo chambers—environments in which we repeatedly encounter similar opinions while hearing fewer alternative perspectives. This is not only relevant to politics. Echo chambers can develop around health advice, parenting, education, fitness, finance and countless other topics. The more often we encounter the same viewpoint, the more familiar and convincing it can begin to feel, regardless of the quality of the evidence supporting it.

Recent work by Pennycook and Rand (2021) suggests that while cognitive biases certainly influence how we process information, encouraging people to pause and think critically before accepting or sharing information may be one of the simplest ways to reduce the spread of misinformation. Psychological knowledge would be essential here as people engaging with media content need to understand the processes that lead to acceptance or rejection of a message.

Our preference for certainty also reflects something deeper about human psychology. Social psychologist Arie Kruglanski developed the concept of the need for cognitive closure to describe our desire for clear answers and our discomfort with ambiguity. While some people experience this need more strongly than others, all of us can find uncertainty uncomfortable. When faced with complex issues, simple explanations can therefore be particularly appealing, even when reality is far more nuanced.

This does not mean we should distrust everything we read or become cynical about other people's opinions. Rather, it reminds us that human reasoning is complex. Psychologists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber (2011) have argued that reasoning may have evolved not simply to discover objective truth, but also to justify our own views and persuade others. Recognising this tendency allows us to become more reflective thinkers and more willing to engage with evidence that challenges our assumptions.

Psychology does not ask us to become suspicious of every opinion or sceptical of every source of information. Instead, it encourages us to recognise that our thinking is influenced by a range of unconscious cognitive processes that affect us all. Confirmation bias, motivated reasoning and our desire for certainty are not signs of weakness—they are part of being human. As Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman (2011) observed, much of our thinking relies on fast, intuitive processes that allow us to make quick judgements without conscious deliberation.

The real value of psychology lies in helping us become more aware of these tendencies. When we pause to ask what evidence supports a claim, whether there are alternative explanations, or why we find one viewpoint more convincing than another, we are practising the kind of critical thinking that sits at the heart of psychological science.

In a world where information is available instantly and opinions travel faster than ever before, the ability to think critically is becoming one of our most valuable life skills. Perhaps the greatest lesson psychology offers is not that we should always have the right answers, but that we should remain curious enough to keep asking better questions.

References and Further Reading

Haidt, J. (2012). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. London: Penguin.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. London: Penguin.

Kruglanski, A. W., & Webster, D. M. (1996). Motivated Closing of the Mind: "Seizing" and "Freezing". Psychological Review, 103(2), 263–283.

Kunda, Z. (1990). The Case for Motivated Reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 480–498.

Mercier, H., & Sperber, D. (2011). Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34(2), 57–74.

Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175–220.