The Human Shortcut Series: Confirmation Bias: Why Tired Minds Get Stuck

You know how, when people are tired, overwhelmed, or under pressure, they start seeing only the information that confirms what they already believe, while missing what might actually help?

That’s confirmation bias at work.

In organisations, especially fatigued ones, it quietly fuels poor decisions, miscommunication, conflict, and declining wellbeing.

What I do is help organisations spot these invisible thinking traps and redesign work, conversations, and systems so people can think more clearly, communicate better, and protect their mental health.

I’m uniquely placed to do this through my work in organisational psychology and fatigue management, alongside my own lived experience and ongoing Level 8 Chartership in Occupational Psychology, translating evidence into practical, usable change.

This blog explores how confirmation bias shows up when energy is low, why it’s so tightly linked to wellbeing and mental health, and what leaders, teams, and individuals can do about it.

What Is Confirmation Bias (Really)?

Confirmation bias is our tendency to:

• seek information that supports what we already think

• interpret evidence in a way that confirms existing beliefs

• ignore, dismiss, or downplay information that challenges us

  
  

It’s not a flaw. It’s a cognitive shortcut, one the brain uses to conserve energy.

When cognitive resources are plentiful, we’re more curious, flexible, and open. When resources are depleted, the brain defaults to familiarity and certainty and this is where fatigue matters.

A Metaphor for Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias works like a mental highlighter. Once your brain decides what it believes, it starts highlighting evidence that supports it and quietly skipping over anything that doesn’t.

The page hasn’t changed. The information is still there. But what you notice has been selectively coloured in.

At work, this means we don’t see reality as it is, we see the version that feels most consistent, least disruptive, and easiest to hold onto. Especially when we’re tired, busy, or emotionally overloaded.

Why Fatigue Supercharges Confirmation Bias

Fatigue changes how they think. When individuals or teams are fatigued, we see:

• reduced cognitive flexibility

• narrower attention

• increased emotional reactivity

• lower tolerance for ambiguity

• stronger reliance on mental shortcuts

In practical terms, this looks like:

• “We’ve tried that before, it won’t work.”

• “Leadership never listens.”

• “This team always resists change.”

• “There’s no point raising it.”

Under fatigue, the brain looks for certainty, not accuracy. Confirmation bias becomes comforting and challenging ideas feels threatening while alternative perspectives feel like extra effort.

This is why tired teams don’t just slow down, they get stuck.

The Wellbeing Cost of Biased Thinking

When confirmation bias goes unchecked, it doesn’t just affect decisions, it affects wellbeing.

Over time, it contributes to:

• frustration and disengagement

• interpersonal conflict

• “us vs them” dynamics

• learned helplessness

• reduced psychological safety

• emotional exhaustion

  
  

People start feeling unheard, misunderstood, or dismissed, even when no one intends harm.

Crucially, mental health suffers not because people are weak, but because systems stop supporting clear thinking.

Why Confirmation Bias Gets Stronger When We’re Tired

Confirmation bias comes from cognitive economy. When energy is low, the brain prioritises:

• speed over accuracy

• certainty over curiosity

• familiarity over challenge

Fatigue, stress, and emotional overload reduce our capacity to evaluate new information properly. So instead of asking “Is this true?” we ask “Does this fit what I already believe?”

This is why confirmation bias is so closely linked to wellbeing, burnout, and mental load. Tired minds don’t seek nuance, they seek relief.

How Confirmation Bias Shows Up in Communication

In everyday workplace communication, confirmation bias sounds like:

• Only noticing feedback that supports a fixed self-view

• Interpreting neutral messages as criticism

• Assuming intent without checking meaning

• Replaying the same narratives about “how things are”

• Talking past each other instead of with each other

Fatigue amplifies this. Low energy reduces patience. Reduced patience reduces curiosity.

Reduced curiosity reduces connection.

Suddenly, small misunderstandings become big tensions.

Leaders, Strategy, and the Bias Trap

This also explains why some leaders:

• feel uncomfortable with strategy

• rush to create artefacts instead of clarity

• confuse activity with progress

• close debates prematurely

When uncertainty meets fatigue, the brain seeks closure, even if it’s artificial. Documents, frameworks, and decisions can become psychological comfort blankets: “Now it’s done”, “Now it’s settled” and “Now we can move on”. But if confirmation bias shaped those decisions, organisations risk reinforcing the very problems they’re trying to solve.

Wellbeing isn’t all about rest, it’s also about mental bandwidth.

In organisations, confirmation bias often hides behind good intentions.

It shows up when:

• leaders only notice engagement data that confirms their view

• feedback is dismissed as “an exception”

• wellbeing concerns are reframed as “resistance”

• performance issues are blamed on individuals, not systems

• the same voices are trusted repeatedly while others are overlooked

Designing Against Confirmation Bias

You can’t think your way out of confirmation bias, but you can design around it.

Effective approaches include:

• deliberately seeking disconfirming evidence

• separating data collection from interpretation

• inviting alternative perspectives before conclusions form

• structuring feedback so it can’t be easily dismissed

• slowing decisions when fatigue is high

In teams, this means creating spaces where curiosity is valued more than being right, especially under pressure.

What Helps: Designing for Clear Thinking

Reducing confirmation bias isn’t about telling people to “think better”. It’s about designing conditions that support better thinking.

That includes:

• reducing unnecessary cognitive load

• pacing work realistically

• building recovery into systems

• slowing conversations when emotions run high

• encouraging multiple perspectives early, not late

• normalising challenge as care, not conflict

At an individual level, it means:

• noticing when tiredness is driving certainty

• pausing before reacting

• asking, “What else could be true?”

• separating feeling from fact

• protecting energy as a cognitive resource

Over time, this creates cultures where people stop speaking up, because evidence has already been silently filtered out.

This is exactly where my work sits.

I support organisations where fatigue, cognitive load, and emotional strain quietly narrow thinking, leading to communication breakdowns, wellbeing blind spots, and performance dips. By bringing evidence-based psychology into learning, communication, and wellbeing design, I help teams notice where bias is shaping decisions and build systems that restore clarity, fairness, and psychological safety. Because better wellbeing doesn’t come from better intentions, it comes from better thinking environments.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Modern work environments are loud:

• constant information

• competing priorities

• digital overload

• blurred boundaries

In these conditions, confirmation bias isn’t the exception, it’s the default.

If organisations want healthier cultures, better communication, and more sustainable performance, they must stop treating thinking quality as an individual responsibility and start treating it as a system outcome.

Confirmation bias, like anchoring, is not a flaw, it’s a feature of a brain trying to cope with complexity. But when pressure rises and energy drops, these shortcuts start driving the system.

In the next post in this series, I’ll explore another bias that becomes louder under fatigue and how it subtly shapes what we notice, remember, and prioritise at work.

Final Reflection: Clarity Is a Wellbeing Strategy

One of the biggest shifts I’ve seen, both professionally and personally, is realising that clarity is protective.

When people are rested enough to think clearly, they:

• communicate with more compassion

• listen more openly

• respond rather than react

• feel safer to speak up

• make better decisions for themselves and others

Confirmation bias thrives in fatigue, while clarity thrives in care.

About the Author

Written by Georgia Hodkinson, GMBPsS, and Founder of Georgia’s PsyWork Ltd.

Georgia specialises in fatigue, cognitive load, wellbeing, communication, and behaviour design, supporting organisations to improve clarity, performance, and psychological safety. Her work blends evidence-based psychology with lived experience, helping organisations design work that is productive and human.

She also serves as Director of Operations & Marketing at the Psychology Business Incubator, creating collaborative learning spaces for psychologists, practitioners, and leaders.

This is the second blog post in the The Human Shortcut Series. Click here to see number 1.