Expectations and other biases
The confirmation bias is the mother of all misconceptions. It is the tendency to interpret new information so that it becomes compatible with our existing theories, beliefs, and convictions.
Rolf Dobelli • The Art of Thinking Clearly
He categories different biases:
- Availability bias - the tendency to judge the likelihood of an event by the ease with which relevant examples come to mind
- Confirmation bias - confirming what you expect to find by selectively accepting or ignoring information
- Affective bias - the tendency to make decisions based on what we wish were true
How doctors actually think
In psychology there are at least two biases that drive this pattern. One is confirmation bias:23 seeing what we expect to see. The other is desirability bias:24 seeing what we want to see. These biases don’t just prevent us from applying our intelligence. They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against the truth.
Adam Grant • Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
And that’s the essence of confirmation bias, our most fundamental cognitive predisposition. When motivated to find a reason for a hunch, we tend to search for evidence to confirm it, and when we believe we’ve found that confirmation, we stop looking.
David McRaney • How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion
Research reveals that the higher you score on an IQ test, the more likely you are to fall for stereotypes, because you’re faster at recognizing patterns. And recent experiments suggest that the smarter you are, the more you might struggle to update your beliefs.
Adam Grant • Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
Expectation is just a system of shortcuts our brains have developed to get through life without stopping every five seconds to figure things out. You observe the world as best as you can, and then your brain fills in the gaps. But sometimes circumstances don’t fit the model of the world that your brain has built. So rather than change its
... See moreErik Vance • Suggestible You
Numerous psychological studies have found that we seek out information that supports our pre-existing views – and avoid information that might contradict them.
This cognitive bias can push people into more extreme ideological positions | BPS
To see how the process unfolds, it’s vital to examine and review three key elements: conditioning, expectation, and meaning. As you’ll see, these three concepts all seem to work together in orchestrating the placebo response.