Confirmation Bias

Image: Breathe Education “Four Kinds of Bias”

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Confirmation bias is generally defined as the tendency for human beings to collect information that confirms what they already believe and discard or minimize information that contracts what they already believe (Casad). Here are a couple of examples:

Did you ever notice how, when you buy item, everyone else suddenly seems to have one, making you feel better about your choice? Let’s I buy a new car, the “2018 Fjord Fracas.” I go out driving and suddenly, the road seems alive with Fjord Fracases. Every third person suddenly seems to have one. “Wow,” I think to myself. “This must be a good car; I am seeing them all over the place.” This is confirmation bias at work.

Odds are, if I carefully counted all the cars on the road, only a very small portion of them would be Fjord Fracases, but I am only noticing the ones I am now interested in, due to my recent purchase.  

Here is another example from Psychology Today:

…a person with low self-esteem is highly sensitive to being ignored by other people, and they constantly monitor for signs that people might not like them. Thus, if you are worried that someone is annoyed with you, you are biased toward all the negative information about that person acts toward you. You [could] interpret neutral behavior as indicative of something really negative (Heshmat).

Image: Straub, Chris. "On Research."  

For further Reading:

“Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises”

by Raymond S. Nickerson of Tufts Universtiy

http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~mckenzie/nickersonConfirmationBias.pdf

Works Cited

Breathe Education. “Four Kinds of Bias.” Vimeo.com. Vimeo Inc. Sept. 2018. Web. 18 Jan. 2018.

Casad, Bettina. “Confirmation Bias.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. 2018. Web. 18 Jan. 2018.   

Heshmat, Shahram. “What is Confirmation Bias?” Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers HealthProfs.com. 23 Apr. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2018.  

Straub, Chris. "On Research." Chainsawsuit.com. Chainsawsuit LLC. 16 Sep. 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2018.
http://chainsawsuit.com/comic/2014/09/16/on-research/