Research on confirmation bias and whether we can free ourselves from it have occupied psychologists for decades. And for good reason. This is because the cognitive distortion can have serious and sometimes dangerous consequences.
If a doctor doesn’t examine a patient thoroughly, for example, because they are known to be a hypochondriac and their symptoms are not to be taken seriously, the doctor could fail to identify a serious illness in time, ultimately leading to the patient’s death.
But it doesn’t have to be this dramatic. Even when watching or reading the news, we disregard information that is not in line with our beliefs due to confirmation bias. In addition to this, algorithms in social media only present us with facts that are in agreement with our worldview. This widens the gap between different political camps, making it harder and harder to rectify radicalized opinions.
The existence of this reasoning error is widely regarded as certain among scientists. The extent to which people are actually influenced in their decisions by confirmation bias, however, to this day remains disputed. Gary Klein, for example, sees central weaknesses in the research.