How Confirmation Bias is Making You Right (Even When You’re Wrong)

What is confirmation bias?

Ever found yourself in a heated debate with your partner, and mid-argument, you whip out Google to prove you’re right? 

After a quick search, you find one obscure blog post from 2010 that kind of, sort of, backs your argument if you squint and tilt your head just right. Suddenly, you’ve “won” the argument. Or, you may have just been hit with a case of confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is that sneaky little cognitive quirk where you only seek out information that supports your beliefs—ignoring the mountains of evidence that tell you otherwise.

Discover our rundown of 25 other cognitive biases.

How confirmation bias works

When we are confronted with new information that confirms what we already believe, we are more likely to:

• Accept it if it supports our existing beliefs
• Overlook flaws or inconsistencies in that information
• Incorporate it into our belief system
• Recall it later to support our arguments

This bias is especially common when dealing with emotionally charged topics, values, or deeply held beliefs. Whether it’s politics, religion, or personal opinions, confirmation bias can skew how we process and remember information.

Real-world examples of confirmation bias

1. Political Issues

Confirmation bias often appears in how people consume news. We are more likely to believe a story if it confirms our pre-existing views, even if the evidence presented is shaky or inconclusive.

For example, let’s say Karen opposes gun control. She’s a big believer in the Second Amendment and sees a school shooting as proof that if more people kept and bore arms, they could have protected themselves better. Karen might say, “You can’t fight fire with water.” Meanwhile, Steve, who supports gun control, sees this as evidence that stricter laws are necessary, arguing that “you do fight fire with water.“

Even if Karen and Steve read the same news story, they’ll each walk away feeling more confident that they’re right and that the other is just plain wrong.

A major study by researchers at Stanford University in 1979 explored the psychological dynamics of confirmation bias. The study was composed of undergraduate students who opposed capital punishment. The participants were asked to evaluate two fictitious studies:

1. One study provided data supporting the argument that capital punishment deters crime.
2. The other provided data that capital punishment had no appreciable effect on overall crime rates.

Despite the data being fabricated and equally compelling, participants’ pre-existing beliefs heavily influenced their interpretation of the studies. Both groups felt more committed to their original stance after being confronted with contradictory evidence.

2. Personal Relationships and Social Media Echo Chambers

We tend to form relationships with people who share our beliefs and values, creating an echo chamber where we only hear information that reinforces our views.

This effect is amplified by social media algorithms, which filter content based on our preferences—also known as the “filter bubble effect.” For instance, Steve might see articles about how everyone’s getting vaccinated, while Karen’s feed is filled with conspiracy theories about microchips and Bill Gates’ secret lair.

3. Decision-Making in Professional Settings

In workplaces, confirmation bias can lead to flawed decisions. For example, a police officer may become fixated on a suspect early in an investigation and focus solely on evidence that supports the suspect’s guilt, disregarding information that might prove their innocence – just taking a page from the plot twist in Shawshank Redemption.

Similarly, in medical settings, doctors may diagnose patients too quickly and interpret subsequent symptoms in a way that confirms their initial diagnosis.

4. Buying and trying products

Most consumers rely on product reviews and advertisements when choosing what to buy. For example, if you’re looking up reviews for Gwyneth Paltrow’s (hmm* uniquely) scented candle and most of the feedback says it “smells fantastic,” you’re more likely to confirm that information when you try it yourself.

Types of confirmation bias

Confirmation bias comes in many flavours, including:

Biased Memory: When we selectively remember information that supports our views while forgetting information that doesn’t.

Biased Search: Only seeking out information that supports your view. If you Google “Is renting better than buying?” you’ll find results that support renting. If you reverse the query, you’ll get the opposite results. Google is just here to make sure you’re always right.

Biased Interpretation: When we interpret information in a way that confirms our beliefs. Twisting ambiguous information to fit your beliefs.

Why does confirmation bias happen?

Experts have a few theories as to why we have this lovely brain glitch:

1. It Avoids Cognitive Dissonance: Your brain doesn’t want to deal with mental conflict. Dealing with opposing information causes our brain to stress, so we tend to avoid it like a toddler avoiding broccoli. Confirmation bias protects us from cognitive dissonance by avoiding all challenging or contradictory information, searching and attending to information we already believe.
2. It’s an Efficient Shortcut: Your brain likes shortcuts – processing all that information is exhausting. So, it just grabs the bits and pieces that confirm what you already think. Evaluating evidence takes time and energy, so our brain looks for shortcuts to make the process more efficient. 
3. It Builds Confidence: Finding evidence that backs up your beliefs? Instant confidence boost. No one likes to be proven wrong; it’s natural to push back when information challenges our beliefs.

3 ways to reduce confirmation bias

As Clark Kent, we’d like to be, we are all prone to confirmation bias, and combating this natural tendency is difficult. 

However, there are a few ways that might help put on our Superman cloak: 

1. Understand the Effects: The first step to tackling confirmation bias is recognising how it impacts decision-making. This bias tends to creep in early, so it’s crucial to start with a neutral, fact-based foundation. Our CRMT courses dive into practical ways to recognise when confirmation bias is at play in our thinking.
2. Do Your Research and Embrace Discomfort: When gathering information, read everything and assess whether the evidence is reliable. Remember that Michael Scott quote: “Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject.” Let that one sink in!
3. Be Ready to Change Your Mind: It’s okay to admit when you’re wrong. One of the best ways to combat confirmation bias is to challenge your own beliefs and actively look for evidence that might prove them wrong.

How we work with confirmation bias in training

During our CRM trainer courses, I typically introduce it in one of two ways. Option one is simple: I introduce the concept, its meaning, why it happens and we discuss ways to mitigate its effect on our decision-making.

Second option, my preferred method, is to use an interactive group exercises to show how this bias works. One exercise I use is the “A-team” game, which shows how confirmation bias can affect decision-making. In this game, teams take turns gathering information to reproduce symbols on a grid plan. Each participant receives different information, and the exercise demonstrates how easily confirmation bias can lead to flawed decision-making.

By participating in this exercise, attendees can observe confirmation bias in action and learn how to counteract it, improving their ability to make more objective decisions.

Dive into our other training articles.