Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 9, 2025

A Computer-Based Platform for Aiding Clinicians in Eating Disorder Analysis and Diagnosis
Published on: May 10, 2022
Stop Fooling Yourself! (Diagnosing and Treating Confirmation Bias)
1Department of Neurobiology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 richard_born@hms.harvard.edu.
Abstract:
Confirmation bias (CB) is a cognitive bias that allows us to fool ourselves by selectively filtering data and distorting analyses to support favored beliefs or hypotheses. In this article, I will briefly review some classic experiments from cognitive psychology that illustrate what a powerful, pernicious, and insidious force CB is. I will then discuss how to recognize CB in our own thinking and behavior and describe specific elements of good experimental design that can mitigate its effects. These elements-such as randomization and blinding-are conceptually straightforward but often difficult in practice and therefore not as widely implemented as they should be.
More Related Videos
06:58Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
10:02Event Related Potentials ERPs and other EEG Based Methods for Extracting Biomarkers of Brain Dysfunction: Examples from Pediatric Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD
Published on: March 12, 2020
Related Concept Videos
Confirmation Biases
Cause and Effect
Bias
In statistics, a sampling bias is created when a sample is collected from a population, and some members of the population are not as likely to be chosen as others (remember, each member...
Beck's Cognitive Therapy
Arbitrary Inference
Arbitrary inference involves making conclusions without sufficient...
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies