Confirmation Bias is the tendency to seek out, remember or interpret information such that it confirms our existing beliefs rather than challenge them.

Confirmation Bias is a Cognitive Bias that causes us to form an individual, subjective view of the world, as opposed to a purely objective one.

The effect is stronger when the topic in question is emotionally charged or more relevant to the individual.

Examples:

  • Researching an idea by searching with phrases that tend to confirm one’s position.
  • Misremembering publications or events such that they tend to confirm one’s position.
  • Holding ideas that challenge one’s position to a higher standard of scrutiny and criticism that than those that confirm it.

Other cognitive biases include;

Further reading: