Confirmation Bias: Article Analysis

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Humans have the mindset to search for evidence which supports what they believe in, and when this evidence found, we most likely interpret it as confirmation to our belief. This is referred to as cognitive bias related to the confirmation bias. Confirmation bias was introduced and briefly talked about in class by Dr. Jim Davies, and described further in the book Riveted (2014), a book also by Dr. Jim Davies. Confirmation bias simply means interpreting things in the way they support our view or belief. This approach is witnessed in our everyday lives, and once we make up our mind to look for it, we begin to see it everywhere. He also goes further to state that in fact, when people begin to see the confirmation bias everywhere, it is partially due to the confirmation bias. In his book, Dr. Davies explains that when we come across information that are in line with what we already believe, we pay more attention to it, which causes us to remember it better, and then we use it to…show more content…
The full-moon effect states that people act more aggressively and madly when there is a full moon. Contrary to findings by careful study, people, including policemen and nurses continue to claim that this is true. In Riveted (2014), Davies explained in his book that the reason for this is that when people hear about the effect, they tend to think of the full-moon effect when people are acting crazy during a full-moon, but not when either of the two is missing. This means that if the same nurses and policemen who claim that the full-moon effect was true, saw people acting crazy and there was no full moon, and also if there were a full moon and people were not acting crazy it would not serve as disconfirming evidence to their belief, but only when both are witnessed at the same time does the full-moon effect come to their memory and their belief in it is thereby strengthened. This could also fall under Observational

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