Confirmation Bias

Not unlike most people, I feel pretty strongly about certain things that are important to me or my life. I'm also pretty active online, mostly through Twitter. A few years ago, I wouldn't have thought twice about clicking the un-follow button if someone said something I found offensive or vehemently disagreed with.

Even now, the urge still strikes when I read something that makes me turn up my nose, but I'm making a conscious effort to recognize just how easy it is to surround yourself with information and people who support your beliefs...creating a comfortable little bubble with no nudges to think critically about novel points of view.

One definition of confirmation bias is the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors. While this phenomenon might be more prevalent on a social or personal level, I'm not often statistically analyzing my Twitter activity, so I'm pretty sure that this refers to it occurring in academic research.

It will be important for me to remember to search for alternative and potentially disproving information as I move through this masters program towards the final research paper. I believe that researchers who acknowledge information that challenges their hypothesis and results is more valuable, especially considering the vast amount of research available in the literature.

I think I would consider avoiding confirmation bias an imperative skill when it comes to critical thinking. What do you think?

If you're interested in reading more about confirmation bias in academic research, you might find the following links useful.

Publication Predjudices: An Experimental Study of Confirmatory Bias in the Peer Review System

Confirmation Bias and the Watson Rule Discovery Test

Confirmation bias in science: how to avoid it