Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias is a subtle but highly influential cognitive tendency that inclines us to seek, interpret, favor and remember information in a way that ratifies our pre-existing beliefs, hypotheses or ideas.

Although in practice it can be useful to quickly fit new information into known schemes, it is also detrimental by limiting our perspective and objectivity.

Selective Information Search

This bias manifests itself in an active search for data or arguments that support what we already think, while simultaneously we tend to ignore, discredit or minimize information that contradicts our positions.

This is especially noticeable when it comes to issues linked to our core values, such as political ideologies or religious beliefs.

For example, a person with a defined political ideology will tend to consume media and participate in conversations that reinforce his or her ideas, dismissing or distorting contrary information, even if it contains reasonable elements.

Pattern Comfort and Energy Savings

The brain tends toward efficiency and seeks to save energy. Confirmation bias facilitates this by allowing pre-established thought patterns to process information for us, avoiding the cognitive effort of analyzing divergent perspectives.

We find comfort in information that fits with what we already know or with our biases.

Cognitive Dissonance and Rationalization

Confirmation bias also relates to how we handle cognitive dissonance, which occurs when our actions or new information contradict our beliefs about ourselves.

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