Glossary: Confirmation Bias
Launch library · evergreen read
Confirmation bias is the tendency to notice, accept and remember information that fits what someone already believes, while overlooking or discounting information that does not fit that existing view. It operates quietly in the background, which is exactly what makes it worth naming and watching for deliberately in your own thinking, not just in others.
In practice, this bias shapes verification more than most people tend to realise about themselves. A claim that confirms an existing view tends to get a lighter check, if any check at all, while a claim that challenges it faces far heavier scrutiny before it is ever accepted.
Naming the bias does not remove it entirely, but it does create a genuinely useful habit: pausing to ask whether a claim would receive the same level of scrutiny if it pointed the opposite direction, and applying that same consistent standard either way, regardless of which conclusion feels more comfortable at the time.