Confirmation Bias and the Evolution of Reason
Last lecture I talked a lot about confirmation bias, this tendency we have to filter and interpret evidence in ways that reinforce our beliefs and expectations. And I argued that one way to think about science and scientific methodology is as a set of procedures that function to neutralize the distorting effects of confirmation bias (among other cognitive biases) by forcing us to seek out and weigh even the evidence that might count against our beliefs and expectations.
There are two sides to cognitive bias research. There’s the science that describes the effects of these biases on our judgment and behavior, and there’s the science that tries to explain why we behave in this way, that tries ...
Get Critical Thinking for Marketers, Volume II now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
