Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias is when a participant unconsciously recalls or selects information that supports their beliefs and values. It is also known that people will use ambiguous evidence to support their views, when it could in fact contradict their point. An easy way to help eliminate confirmation bias is to ask the participant to disprove it. This is shown to make it easier to pick holes in what their saying and make a better judgement.

In today’s society, there are more things than ever that impact confirmation bias, including social media. Many posts that appear online have been created using a filter. The influence of social media on confirmation bias is significant because the many edited pictures may cause the viewer to believe something which is not reality, and could even shape their unconscious beliefs.

Confirmation bias happens every day, from choosing what to eat to a favourite character in a TV series; however, a more common instance is what we search for online. For example, if you were to search for ‘is football better than cricket?’ the results would lead you to believe football is superior. On the other hand, searching for ‘is cricket better than football?’ will give you the impression cricket is more popular. This shows how wording questions slightly differently depending on what beliefs someone has prior, can greatly affect the results given.

This term is synonymous within the field of behavioural science market research.

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