Right now a great number of people on Twitter seem to be frothing at the mouth trending the hashtag #BoycottChhapaak. This is based on lead actor Deepika Padukone’s visit to JNU and a completely fake narrative – created probably maliciously or perhaps out of a misguided willingness to believe negativity about anyone with a divergent point of view.
Posts like these were being circulated on social media. The charge was that in the movie Chhapaak, which tells the story about an acid attack survivor, the name of the attacker is Rajesh whereas in real life it was Naeem Khan. The filmmakers were accused of being Hinduphobic by presenting a Muslim character as a Hindu in the film.
Several news publications promptly issued the clarification that this is untrue. The name of the attacker Naeem was changed to Bashir just as the name of the original survivor, Laxmi was changed to Malti. Rajesh is another character in the film; who apparently is portrayed as Malti’s friend. In spite of these clarifications, few or none of those who shared the fake post either apologised or took down their posts. #BoycottChhapaak was trending on 9 Jan even at the time of writing this piece.
Those who were so willing to believe fake narrative were probably against Padukone to begin with, for the stand she took on the matter of violence in JNU. This has to do with our Confirmation Bias. Confirmation bias is our tendency to search for, favour and interpret information in a way that conforms to our belief system. The way we view information is coloured by our personal, emotional and political beliefs. When neutral or ambiguous information is presented to us, we tend to interpret it in a way that suits and confirms our beliefs. When negative information is presented we may believe or disbelieve it based on who it favours.
When we have made up our minds about something, even facts that demonstrate to the contrary will not make us change our minds. This is because it is difficult to admit to a mistake. Rather than admit we are wrong, we view even new information in a way that suits us. Our willingness to believe and forward what we receive via WhatsApp and our wiliness to believe anything that discredits people we dislike are examples of our respective confirmation biases. Since Facebook and other social apps are designed to show us what we want to see, we continue to labour under our respective misapprehensions.
Where on the one hand, people were asking for a boycott of the film Chhapaak, saying they were cancelling tickets, others said they would be sure to watch the film because of the stand Padukone has taken to stand with the victims of violence in JNU. Those who had willingly believed news about the film being Hinduphobic and shared posts relating to this did not apologise. Nor did they delete posts they had made; even with the knowledge that this could cause harm to people and result in actual losses. When some were confronted with the fact that they were spreading fake news, they either chose to remain silent or responded by saying that they had other grievances against the film and its makers and hence wanted to register their protest in any way possible.
In these days of strongly held political and religious beliefs, our confirmation biases prevent us from being able to see any point of view other than our own. We permit our confirmation biases to polarize us. We discredit the information as well as the person who does not dovetail with our strongly held beliefs. We feel anxious when what we see and hear does not fit in with what we want to hear and see.
It is, in fact, this phenomenon of confirmation bias that is responsible for the current proliferation of fake news and the success of fake news sites. The fake news leading to the hashtag #BoycottChhapaak is a perfect example of confirmation bias creates and spreads fake news. The next time you see or hear something that seems to confirm your beliefs, you may want to ask whether it is your confirmation bias at work?
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