confirmation bias

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confirmation bias

(kon″fĭr-mā′shŏn)

An error in diagnostic thinking in which one sees only those patterns in the data that support one's preconceptions.

References in periodicals archive ?

Since confirmation bias can be applied to various decision-making tasks and counter-argument may serve as a useful tool for eliminating it, future research should extend the proposed concept to other decision-making areas to test the effect of counter-argument on decision-making.

Computer-mediated counter-arguments and individual learning

Just one example, which psychologists call confirmation bias: once we have formed an opinion we tend to accept new evidence which supports it but disregard new evidence that challenges it.

Questioning your own judgement is essential; PULLEIN ON FOOTBALL

Study after study demonstrates reason's deficiencies, such as the oft-noted confirmation bias (the tendency to recall, select, or interpret evidence in a way that supports one's preexisting beliefs) and people's poor performance on straightforward logic puzzles.

A reason for reason

Lastly, their data show that model-tracing can detect interesting patterns of student inquiry such as confirmation bias and overcoming confirmation basis.

Using Model-Tracing to Conduct Performance Assessment of Students' Inquiry Skills within a Microworld

An interesting example of the latter is the confirmation bias, which causes us to look for evidence confirming already existing beliefs and ignore or reinterpret evidence countering those beliefs.

Michael Shermer. The Mind of the Market--Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales From Evolutionary Economics

* confirmation bias: confirming what you expect to find

From Persephone to psychiatry: Busting psychopharmacology myths

In this context, the most relevant of these is 'confirmation bias,' which is the human tendency to find ways to confirm preconceptions rather than refute them.

Overcoming human cognitive bias: from choosing appropriate hit finding compounds to the nomination of a preclinical candidate, drug discovery project teams are constantly required to make important decisions. The significance of these decisions means that it is essential to draw objective and accurate conclusions, to ensure the successful outcome of a drug discovery project

This error is typically called 'confirmation bias', sometimes also 'the availability error', 'the primacy effect', 'belief persistence', 'positivity bias', or the 'congruence heuristic' (Gilovich, 1991; Sutherland, 1992; Nickerson, 1998).

First among errors: if we could teach only one science lesson, what would it be?

Confirmation bias leads people to embrace new information that reinforces their existing assumptions and to reject information that challenges them.

Driving new growth

They include the affirmation bias (our tendency to agree with one another, or "go along to get along"), the confirmation bias (the tendency to overweigh evidence that tends to support what we already believe and to underweigh or ignore evidence that does not), the endowment effect (the tendency to overvalue things that are our own), the fixed-pie perspective (the belief that the totality of benefits to be distributed among participants is like a pie that cannot be enlarged, so every piece our opponent gets is a piece that we don't get), the fundamental attribution error (attributing a different and usually more admirable cause to our own behavior than to someone else's behavior), and loss aversion (the tendency to give undue weight to losses so that they loom larger than gains).

The Science of Settlement: Ideas for Negotiators

One inherent danger associated with theories is the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions--an error referred to as confirmation bias.

Avoiding cognitive biases that can jeopardize cost management success: are you proving your own hypotheses, overusing groups, displaying too much confidence, or worse?