confirmation bias

[kon-fer-mey-shuhn bahy-uhs]

noun

Psychology.

1. bias that results from the tendency to process and analyze information in such a way that it supports one’s preexisting ideas and convictions: Unfortunately, their experimental method was proven invalid due to confirmation bias.

   Confirmation bias is a major issue when we get all our news from social media sites.

   Unfortunately, their experimental method was proven invalid due to confirmation bias.

Word History and Origins

Origin of confirmation bias¹

Coined in 1960 by English psychologist Peter Wason

Example Sentences

It creates what psychologists call confirmation bias.

Read more on Slate

As Tufts University’s Raymond Nickerson notes, “If one were to attempt to identify a single problematic aspect of human reasoning that deserves attention above all others, the confirmation bias would have to be among the candidates for consideration.”

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What the Roberson case shows is that the justice didn’t foresee how confirmation bias would keep holdouts locked into their support of capital punishment long after it became clear that the death-penalty system was irretrievably broken.

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At first, I wondered if I was simply noticing them more — a trick of confirmation bias, maybe, because I spend my workdays steeped in stories about hunger and the policies meant to address it.

Read more on Salon

“It relies on ideas that were rejected long ago, supported by misrepresentations of the body of scientific knowledge, omissions of important facts, arm waving, anecdotes and confirmation bias. This report makes it clear DOE has no interest in engaging with the scientific community.”

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