Think before you say something, it may be hard to retract- the fallacy of Consistency Bias

 

The Korean War was a conflict that took place on the Korean Peninsula from 1950 to 1953. It began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea. The war stemmed from the division of Korea after World War II, with the Soviet Union occupying the north and the United States occupying the south.

In the conflict, many American soldiers were taken Prisoner of War (POW) in the Chinese camps. The Chinese treated these soldiers differently than their North Korean allies who were brutal in their tactics to solicit compliance from the POWs. The Chinese followed a compliance tactic through commitment garnered from American soldiers by making them write marginally anti-American things about America and marginally good things about Communism.

But how did they achieve this? They set on a path of staggered compliance by committing soldiers to their own confessions. What were these confessions about? The Chinese used to force American soldiers to speak that ‘America is not perfect’. Then they used to ask them to say ‘Communism does not have any problem of unemployment. The prisoners were comfortable saying these neutral statements. But they were committing themselves publicly to a stand. The stand was that America was not perfect and it might have some issues and that China was not as bad as it is portrayed.

The Chinese then tapped this commitment bias and asked them to write a few words about how America is not perfect. Having committed initially that America was not perfect, the prisoners felt less reluctant to now write this down and most did end up writing. Then they were asked to make a list of the problems in their country and sign this paper.

Having signed the paper, the prisoner was asked to read it aloud in the group. This was followed by asking them to write an essay about the same. In this way, the Chinese were able to influence the POWs and get compliance from them related to sensitive information or some tip-offs they desired. They were able to solicit compliance from hardened soldiers who had been trained to not divulge any information or secret if captured by the enemy.

The Chinese also passed on the writing by broadcasting it on the radio to the other prisoners. The prisoner was labeled as a collaborator and this further reinforced the person’s self-image as a collaborator and he happily complied.

Later when these POWs were interviewed by psychologists back home after they were released by the Chinese they actually stated some favorable things about communism which was not their ideology when they joined the war. Dr. Henry Segal, chief of the neuropsychiatric evaluation team that examined POWs stated that the political attitudes of the soldiers had been changed and they were more accommodating of Communism and felt it was good at least for the Asian countries.

The key takeaway from the experiment is that you usually stay consistent with what you commit publicly. It becomes manifest in your ideology to not diverge from an earlier stand. Any divergence is viewed unfavorably and thus one has to be consistent with their statement.  It was later assessed that writing down a commitment can actually make one commit to their statement.

This tendency can be used by humans in their favour. If someone wants to achieve a particular goal, they can reveal their goal in their social circle. By putting out their claim in public, they have now committed themselves to a stand. For e.g. I stated out loudly in public that I would not drink for 1500 days starting this January. My friends were surprised to hear about my goal. Some laughed off and some doubted my claims. Even I was not sure about my claim. However, once made that statement public, I felt the power of my commitment. This public commitment anchored me to stay consistent with my claim.

Although this is not to say that everyone follows what they commit publicly. People even make a fool of themselves by having lofty statements made public and then after a few days of struggle the goal withers away. Such people are not actually serious about their claims and only seek approval for an activity they think would label them as serious or cool.

I have friends who put their fitness goals and videos from Day 1 or Day 2 of their workouts on social media. 3 months later I realise they actually went nowhere and the initial motivation of going public about their goal actually vanished soon. On top of that, they have no feelings of guilt for being inconsistent with their claims. You can see such people repeat this process several times before they give up. They were actually never serious and fitness was never a priority for them.

For people who know what they want, the idea of committing to a goal by writing it down and making it public can help them stay consistent. To recall Chulbul Pandey’s claim in the movie Dabangg starring Salman Khan- “Ek baar maine commitment kar diya fir main apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta” meaning “If once I commit, then I don’t retract”. He is actually not doing something great by keeping up his commitments. The consistency bias and human nature is actually making Mr. Chulbul Pandey consistent.