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MIXORA CONCEPT

Confirmation bias

A tendency to seek, interpret or remember information in ways that favor an existing belief or hypothesis.

thoughtStrong evidence
IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

The label covers several related effects rather than one single mental switch. A practical countermeasure is to ask what evidence would change your mind and deliberately search for it.

What “Strong evidence” means

The core definition or effect is well established across authoritative standards, foundational research or a broad research literature. The label does not make every practical prediction certain.

Marker-board illustration created specifically to explain Confirmation bias: A tendency to seek, interpret or remember information in ways that favor an existing belief or hypothesis.VISUAL EXPLANATION · MARKER BOARD
A tendency to seek, interpret or remember information in ways that favor an existing belief or hypothesis.
EXAMPLE

A person convinced that red always attracts attention notices supporting advertisements while forgetting quiet red objects that drew no notice.

COMMON CONFUSION

Confirmation bias includes how evidence is searched for and interpreted, not only ignoring facts on purpose.

ASK YOURSELF

What result would genuinely make me reduce confidence in this belief?

RELATED CONCEPTS
thought × bridgeEvidence

Information that raises, lowers or otherwise constrains rational confidence in a claim.

→thoughtMotivated reasoning

Reasoning shaped by a preferred conclusion, identity, emotion or practical incentive.

→thought × bridgeAttention

Selective prioritization of some information for processing or action.

→thoughtCognitive bias

A systematic pattern in judgment or memory that departs from a relevant standard or produces predictable error.

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SOURCES & TRUST

References

Last reviewed

  1. 01
    Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises

    Raymond S. Nickerson · 1998 · Review of General Psychology

    Review of selective searching for and interpretation of evidence.
    Academic source
  2. 02
    Confirmation

    Franz Huber · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    Philosophical models of how evidence supports hypotheses.
    Reference source
What the source labels mean
Primary source
Original work, experiment, standard or historical text.
Academic source
Scholarly research or review published for an academic audience.
Reference source
An expert standard, encyclopedia or institutional explanation that summarizes a field.
General reference
A practical specialist resource useful for application, but not treated as decisive research by itself.