Craft Beer and Confirmation Bias
The taproom at Boat Town Brewing in Lebanon, Missouri.
Last spring, I was super excited to be assigned a story about craft breweries in small communities. My pitch to the editors is that it might be less about the beer and more about being a third place for the Gen Z-and-younger demographic to gather. I focused on four breweries in Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas and uncovered some very interesting information about community development, beer brewing trends, and history.
The copy editor hated it. The article was 3,000 words, and he sent back 1,903 words of comments. A couple were condescendingly positive. Most were wrenchingly negative. After three decades of writing for clients, I have a pretty thick skin, but after I read that feedback, I left my desk, went into my bedroom, and sobbed for 20 minutes.
Photo courtesy of Pridgin Family Brewery in Scranton, Arkansas.
I eventually did turn in a revised version of the article. It aligns with the copy editor’s wishes, which were to have a piece that confirmed his view of the craft beer industry. He has written a book about breweries in Missouri and considers himself an expert on the subject.
What does this have to do with the “Hi, I’m New Here” theme? Part of what I had set out to show was the changing attitudes among longtime residents of small towns as their children and grandchildren return to their communities, bringing with them their tattoos, their clothing styles, their curiosity, and their resilience. The places I wrote about had changed their liquor laws in response to pressure from these returning entrepreneurs and economic development leaders. They are bucking the trend of declining beer sales while respecting their customers’ changing tastes and preference for non-alcohol options.
Photo courtesy of Irrigation Ales in Courtland, Kansas.
You won’t read any of that in the article. I believe the editor wasn’t able to challenge his own confirmation bias and face the possibility that his existing beliefs weren’t the whole story.
The devil on my shoulder wants to send him this news story about where Americans are relocating and why. Around 9 percent of us move every year, and here’s how we break down in our destination choices: “41 percent of movers preferred suburbs; 16 percent, small metropolitan areas; and only 13 percent leaned toward large metros. More surprising, 30 percent were seeking rural locations.”
The authors of the story are even more surprised about who is moving to rural areas. “Sixty-three percent of rural and small metro counties added residents between 25 and 44 years old from 2020 to 2023, more than twice the percentage of a decade before.”
I will be curious to see whether the results of this study start to penetrate the current narrative that most young people want to live in urban areas. I have a feeling this is also going to run into some confirmation bias.
Photo of The Hops taproom courtesy of The Farm and The Odd Fellows in Minneapolis, Kansas.
By coincidence, I’ve had several conversations with friends and acquaintances this week about why they choose to live where they do. Some fell in love with their neighborhoods during the pandemic, when they connected with each other during driveway happy hours. Some are moving with young families to put down roots. Some are looking for economic opportunity. Some are saving money by living in less-expensive housing in order to save money for the future. Some are just going out into the work world and exploring the kinds of places they might like and might not like.
I also had some conversations with my own neighbors while out delivering cookies to 12 of the houses near me for Missouri’s Good Neighbor Week. We talked about dogs and fire pits and the weather. Some grew up on this very street. Some grew up in Vietnam, Mexico, and Ecuador. But like my cheesy little note says, I’m happy they are choosing to live in this little corner of the world.