Famous Examples of Confirmation Bias. For example, a journalist demonstrates confirmation bias when she interviews only those experts who support her story's angle. Many factors of which people are unaware can influence information processing. Interpretive letters become effective immediately upon issuance. January 8, 2014, mason, Leave a comment. Confirmation bias is when someone search for or interpret information inorder to support pre-existing belifs/ ideas. Examples of confirmation bias are found in news reports, academic research and interpersonal relations. The confirmation bias is a cognitive bias that causes people to search for, favor, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms their preexisting beliefs. Not a day goes by without non-experts believing themselves experts because of an anecdote about events that have happened to them or to somebody they know. Interpretive Letter: A letter issued by banking regulators that interprets the banking law for a specific issue or party. Let’s look at an example of confirmation bias: I have four cards for you (each has a number on one side and a letter on the other side). Confirmation Bias Example. Confirmation bias is one example of how humans sometimes process information in an illogical, biased manner. Philosophers note that humans have difficulty processing information in a rational, unbiased manner once they have developed an opinion about the issue. The very real phenomenon of looking for evidence to support a presupposed theory is the very antithesis of scientific thought. That’s what Peter Wason coined this finding with the term – Confirmation Bias… For example, if they thought the rule was, “Each number is four greater than its predecessor”, they would offer a triple that fit this rule, such as (11,15,19) rather than a triple that violates it, such as (11,12,17). For example, the confirmation bias can cause someone who is presented with a lot of information on a certain topic to only remember the bits of information that confirm what they already thought about that topic. One of the cards shows an E, one shows a 4 on one face, one has a K on one face, and one has a 7.
Confirmation bias in the workplace: In hiring, confirmation bias often plays a detrimental role at the very beginning of the process when you first review a resume and form an initial opinion of the candidate based on inconsequential attributes like their name, where they’re from, where they went to school and so forth.