Confirmation bias
Definition: The tendency to seek out, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that supports one’s prior values, beliefs, expectations, or hypothesis.
Related terms: Confirmatory bias, Congeniality bias, Myside bias
References:
- Bishop, D. V. (2020). The psychology of experimental psychologists: Overcoming cognitive constraints to improve research: The 47th Sir Frederic Bartlett Lecture. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021819886519
- Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175–220. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175
- Spencer, E. A., & Heneghan, C. (2018). Confirmation bias. Catalogue Of Bias. https://catalogofbias.org/biases/confirmation-bias/
- Wason, P. C. (1960). On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12(3), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470216008416717
Originally drafted by: Barnabas Szaszi; Jenny Terry
Reviewed by: Mahmoud Elsherif, Tamara Kalandadze, Sam Parsons, Charlotte R. Pennington