Confirmation Bias

Confirmation Bias

Our brains have evolved to crave information consistent with what we already believe. We seek out and focus on facts and arguments that support our beliefs. More worrisome, when we are trapped in confirmation bias, we may not consciously perceive facts that challenge us, that are inconsistent with what we have already concluded.  In a complicated, changing, and integrated world, our confirmation bias makes us very difficult people. We simply can't change our minds.

(James Comey, A Higher Loyalty, (large print) p. 179-180)

Dick Henthorn

5 Nov 2019

Wishing

There's nothing odd about wanting our beliefs to be supported by facts. Yet we must recognize that wishing does not make something so and that we cannot invent the truth to please ourselves. Be willing to think clearly and judge rationally - and to accept the truth, like it or not.
(The Christophers, Three Minutes A Day, Vol. 41, 16 January)
6 May 2014

Facts

(Photo: Mr. Dickie - Peony and Iris in our backyard)

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. (John Adams in Believing In Myself, by Larsen and Hegarty, 24 May)

26 Jun 2011

Negative Emotion

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. (Aldous Huxley in The Book Of Choices by Mike Magee, M.D., p. 116)

... negative emotion sells far more papers than news does. (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, p. 154) 13/Mar/2011 7:14