Simply put, confirmation bias is when you seek evidence to support what you already believe. It rejects contradictory observations in favor of what confirms your preexisting belief or hypothesis. It’s a cognitive bias and a systemic error of inductive reasoning.
Full Answer
A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases. For example, imagine that a person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people.
Confirmation Bias Examples. Confirmation bias occurs when people ignore new information that contradicts existing beliefs. For example, voters will ignore information from news broadcasters than contradicts their existing views. This leads to many on the left only watching CNN, whilst those of the right stick to Fox.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out, interpret, judge and remember information so that it supports one's pre-existing views and ideas. Confirmation bias can make people less likely to engage with information which challenges their views.
Types of confirmation biasBiased search for information.Biased interpretation of information.Biased memory recall of information.
Confirmation bias meaning Investors have their own opinions or pre-conceived notions. Seeking information or opinions that supports their ideas or pre-conceived notions and ignoring information that is contrary to their pre-conceived notions is confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is tested by a simple experiment.
Confirmation biases impact how we gather information, but they also influence how we interpret and recall information. For example, people who support or oppose a particular issue will not only seek information to support it, they will also interpret news stories in a way that upholds their existing ideas.
Confirmation Bias (Defined) The tendency to seek, interpret and create information that verifies existing beliefs even if their current information indicates that the original decision was incorrect, based upon the perceived information that made the decision.
For example, posing the question, "Why aren't you the person for this job?” Or, “What did you hate about your last job?" Ask references for contact information of other employees that the individual worked with. They're much more likely to provide an objective perspective on their work.
Three types of bias can be distinguished: information bias, selection bias, and confounding. These three types of bias and their potential solutions are discussed using various examples.
So the confirmation bias can easily lead us to reach inaccurate –and even unethical– conclusions. It's essential to recognize our vulnerability to confirmation bias, and actively guard against it by being open to evidence that is not consistent with our beliefs and theories.