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Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias exists when people seek out or evaluate information in a way that fits with their existing thinking and preconceptions. For example, a consumer may have a chosen favourite brand and will then seek out positive reviews of this product to help confirm that they have made the right choice.

The famous investor Warren Buffett once quoted confirmation bias when he said that "What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact."

Confirmation bias is the tendency for people to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms their preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.

An example of confirmation bias might be a person who only seeks out information that supports their belief that a certain political party is the best, while ignoring or dismissing information that contradicts that belief. Another example might be a person who is trying to decide whether or not to buy a certain product, and only pays attention to reviews that are positive, while ignoring or dismissing negative reviews. Confirmation bias can lead people to make judgments that are not based on all of the available evidence, and can result in poor decision-making.

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