“Confirmation Bias”

I finally figured out why our politicians are so narrow in their point of view and why they continually fail to consider opinions other than their own. It turns out they are like the rest of us and are guilty of “confirmation bias.” This phenomenon is well-known to psychologists and outlined in the book, “Future Babble” by Don Gardner: “Once we form a belief for any reason, good or bad, rational or bonkers, we will eagerly seek out and accept information that supports it while not bothering to look for information that does not – and if we are unavoidably confronted with information that doesn’t fit, we will be hyper critical of it, looking for any excuse to dismiss it as worthless.” Apparently, even facts do not disturb this bias. Listen to any call-in talk show and you will get a perfect example of confirmation bias.