Confirmation Bias
Confirmation Bias is when we unknowingly disregard any information that disputes or challenges are current belief or view on that matter and put more value on any information that supports it. A very mundane example of this in my own life would probably be within your standard High School drama, when through your friends etc. you have only heard negative things about a person (possibly because they fought with someone you’re close with) when others tell you good things about them you tend to quickly disregard them and stick with your initial impression of them. On a larger scale, this could be applied to stereotypes of people and their cultures etc.
Belief Bias
Belief Bias is when we think our reasoning or argument for a conclusion we are absolutely certain of is a lot stronger and valid than it really is. A good example of this is when I’m defending my or a friend’s actions or point during an argument and I think I’ve thought of a rock solid argument but when I look back on it properly I realise that I wasn’t actually making much sense and it was quite a weak point especially if I’ve decided that whatever I was defending was actually in the wrong.
Hindsight Bias
Hindsight Bias is when looking back on the past you find everything that happened very easily predictable. A good example of this is when you’re thinking about how or why someone reacted the way they did to something you said/did etc. and suddenly it seems perfectly obvious that that was how they would react, but in the moment that was one of the last things you would’ve thought.
Fundamental Attribution Error
Fundamental Attribution Error or FAE is when we overuse people’s personality to explain their behaviour, especially when that is not the case e.g. saying someone is an atheist when they are given an atheist stance in a debate even if they themselves are religious. An example of this would be; say when you’re listening to a friend rant about someone they had an argument with and you say something along the lines of that’s just who they are, or when you’re explaining somebody’s behaviour by saying the same thing.
Good examples and comments Saniya, thank you. These are a few cases, and the main point is that the cognitive biases (of which confirmation bias is one specific bias – go back and look at your title here 🙂 ) are predictable and foreseeable. And hence, we can educate our selves to understand them and (here’s the hard part) if we can be cognizant of them, we can maybe even avoid them, at least sometimes.
So this is very helpful, and very practical!
Nice to see you so engaged and insightful in class today – thank you.
N