Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

034 Confirmation Bias

A tendency to favor information that confirms pre-existing views.

Confirmation bias is a tendency to focus on information that supports pre-existing views, ignoring any information that contradicts those views. As a failing of human reasoning, confirmation bias is a leading contender, exacerbated by Internet search engines that act like giant confirmation-bias machines: A person can search for any view they seek to confirm, no matter how ill-informed or outlandish, and a search engine will return pages of links that normalize and validate that view.1

Effects of confirmation bias include overconfidence, selective memory, poor decision-making, and resistance to change in light of contrary evidence. Accordingly, presenting ...