The coverage and aftermath of the Robert Mueller congressional hearing confirms two things: confirmation bias is still a thing, and the stories we tell matter.  

Most are aware of the reality that two people can hear or see the exact same thing and view it differently. The culprit is confirmation bias, which is that “when people would like a certain idea or concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true.“

We even go so far as to seek out people and stories that confirm what we believe to be true. Politically motivated– dare we say weaponized– accounts can vary between news outlets to the point where you wonder if they are describing the same event.

Ideas that we hope to be true become actionable when another human trait kicks in – storytelling. People are storytellers. Stories serve as parables and warnings; they can be inspirational and aspirational. And even if untrue – when they are repeated often enough, repetition and shared bias can cause them to seem to be true.

Though storytelling may be universal, the way we tell stories changes with the technology at hand. Frank Rose writes that each new medium has changed storytelling – from print to radio to the internet. He adds – and, I think, cautions – “The internet is the first medium that can act like all media – it can be text, or audio or video, or all of the above. It’s nonlinear. … It’s inherently participatory – not just interactive, in the sense that it responds to your commands, but an instigator constantly encouraging you to comment, to contribute, to join in.”

And join in we do – with shared and repeated stories that reflect and reinforce our biases.

Bias in storytelling is not entirely without benefit. In order for large groups of people to create a community (or state, or nation), they need a common story: one that focuses on a similar bias – a vision that rises above our differences. Our republic exists because a group of people choseto believe such a story. Conversely, some of the darkest moments in history depend upon shared, albeit misguided, stories – think Nazi Germany.

Somewhere in the 1600s we began to hear the most revolutionary story of all – that rights are God-given, that all people are created equal –and so began what promised to be the most enlightened approach of bringing order, meaning and personal freedoms to a society. Since 1776, that story has created the most prosperous nation the world has ever known.

Stories – once conceived, then told, then written – make ideas and principles widely accepted. And so, it matters – the stories we choose to tell, and share and repeat.

One of the greatest threats to our society and freedoms is the newly established social media “rule” that stories must be immediate and reactionary, and that truth is established by consent and bias rather than fact and study. Ironically, this new definition of interactive truth leaves us open to every clever variation of a lie.

The result of incendiary stories based on bias and told through media is obvious: division and even violence are the endgame. But the stories we tell our children are consequential in a different way. If we continue to modify, isolate and prioritize our history – if we continue to show a critical bias against this union, rather than a bias toward perfecting it, Abraham Lincoln foretold what is already manifesting today: “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”

Since we as human beings cannot overcome our natural tendencies toward bias and storytelling, then we should consider carefully our biases and choices in the stories we tell. The Founders of this great nation held a conscious and chosen bias; a bias against tyranny and toward individual liberty, freedom, self-worth and God-given rights.

Coverage of the Mueller hearing presented two very different – and very biased – accounts. Most stories today seem to demonstrate a bias toward conspiracy, victimization and intolerance. Many end with the abandonment rather than refinement of the principles that built our nation. Some stories suggest that we surrender to socialist or tribal tendencies. One prevalent story seems to be that socialism is a step forward– rather than an incomprehensible step backward in a direction we have sacrificed so much to overcome.

Let’s consider, in our homes, on social media, in our extended families and communities – what stories we are telling and what biases we choose to embrace. We do, after all, have a choice.