Coaching practices for Evidence for and Against Belief

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Evidence for and Against Belief, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I’m leaning hard on the evidence that lines up with what I want to be true and brushing off the rest
• I’ve already landed on the harsh thing I believe about myself
• I can argue myself out of the bad belief on paper and still feel it in my gut the second I’m around people
• A flimsy study that confirms what I want I’ll wave straight through, but a solid one that contradicts me I’ll pick apart for hours
• I’m holding a belief tightly and I want to test it honestly, but I know that the second I go looking I’ll find whatever confirms it

Practices that may help

1. Evaluate evidence by its likelihood ratio, not by how it makes you feel
   Ask how much more likely this evidence would be if you’re right versus if you’re wrong.
   Bayesian Thinking: How to Update Beliefs Rationally
2. Testing a core belief with historical evidence
   Once you have a core belief, survey all your history for evidence that contradicts it.
   The Downward Arrow: Uncovering the Core Beliefs Behind Distress
3. Behavioral experiments to test core beliefs in vivo
   Design a real-world action that tests the core belief, then observe what actually happens.
   The Downward Arrow: Uncovering the Core Beliefs Behind Distress
4. Apply the same evidence standard regardless of whether you like the conclusion
   Grade the evidence before you know which conclusion it supports.
   Motivated Reasoning
5. Specify what would falsify your belief before you look at evidence
   Write down what evidence would prove you wrong before you go looking.
   Falsification Thinking
6. Actively seek disconfirming evidence
   Deliberately look for evidence that your current belief is wrong.
   Superforecasting
7. Weigh disconfirming evidence more heavily than confirming evidence
   One strong counterexample outweighs many confirming examples for a universal claim.
   Falsification Thinking
8. Actively seek evidence that would disconfirm your belief
   Ask: "What would change my mind?" and then look for exactly that.
   Bayesian Thinking: How to Update Beliefs Rationally
9. Slow the reflexive loop
   Your current beliefs shape which data you select, reinforcing themselves — interrupt this loop deliberately.
   The Ladder of Inference
10. Practice elenchus — cross-examine your own beliefs
    Pick one confident belief and interrogate it as Socrates would: What do you mean? How do you know? What would refute it?
    The Socratic Method, Made Practical

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.