My son failed the driver's test in NY State 2 times in a row and today I figured out why.
Confirmation Bias is the reason.
A confirmation bias is where something confirms a bias you have. One day I noticed a few bad drivers from New Jersey and I thought about the term "Jersey Driver." From that day on I noticed so many bad drivers from Jersey. I set a rule in my mind. "People from New Jersey are bad drivers." Whenever I saw a Jersey driver doing something bad it reinforced my bias. But if I saw a New York driver doing something bad I had no rule for them. There could be hundreds of drivers from New Jersey who drove perfectly fine but if just one was bad it would reinforce my rule.
When I realized I had this bias I noticed that both New York and New Jersey has it share of bad drivers.
So how do you pass the driver's test using this information?
When the Motor Vehicle Dept. tester steps in the car they may reach a conclusion right there on whether you pass or fail. But I realized that my son didn't stop at stop signs well. He would drive to the sign and slow down too early. So on the driver's test when he stopped poorly the tester immediately had a bias that he's a bad driver. We worked on this until his stops were much better.
So the thing to do is get off to the best start possible and make the pull out and first stop as good as possible. If you do this you can set the tester on a bias that you're a good driver and they'll excuse any bad thing you do on the test. Also make sure the car is clean, has no visible damage and smells nice.
I hope this helps you also. Please leave a comment below if it does.
