Confirmation Bias
What is Confirmation Bias?
Confirmation bias is a tendency of people to prefer information that reinforces a thought or believe that they have. People demonstrate this bias when they retain information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotional issues and for deeply rooted beliefs. (Science Daily)
Examples of Confirmation Bias
There are many everyday examples of people using confirmation bias behavior. A student doing research on only one side to an argument for a paper to confirm their thesis may fail to fully search the topic for information that is inconsistent with what they are writing about. Also a reporter who is writing an article on an important issue may only interview experts that support his or her view on the issue. Confirmation bias is also very common when consumers make a purchase. (Raymond, 1998)
Confirmation Bias in Retail
Personally, I have seen consumers with a confirmation bias plenty of times. Since I was sixteen, I have been working in retail. This has given me plenty of opportunities to observe confirmation bias in a consumer’s behavior. Recently, I had to deal with a customer who had strong beliefs about her knowledge on clothing quality.
A few months ago at my job, The Children’s Place in the North Shore Mall, I had a customer asking for a particular brand for children’s workout apparel. After I told her we did not carry the brand she was looking for, she was very upset. She was convinced that this brand had quality worth the extra money she spent, which was a lot. I offered her the option to just look at the clothing we offered, but it was not up to par with what she was used to getting. In the end, she bought the clothing from The Children’s Place because she desperately needed gym clothes for her daughter the following day.
After finishing the transaction, I was satisfied that I finalized the purchase and changed her biased view of only purchasing from this
Confirmation bias is a tendency of people to prefer information that reinforces a thought or believe that they have. People demonstrate this bias when they retain information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotional issues and for deeply rooted beliefs. (Science Daily)
Examples of Confirmation Bias
There are many everyday examples of people using confirmation bias behavior. A student doing research on only one side to an argument for a paper to confirm their thesis may fail to fully search the topic for information that is inconsistent with what they are writing about. Also a reporter who is writing an article on an important issue may only interview experts that support his or her view on the issue. Confirmation bias is also very common when consumers make a purchase. (Raymond, 1998)
Confirmation Bias in Retail
Personally, I have seen consumers with a confirmation bias plenty of times. Since I was sixteen, I have been working in retail. This has given me plenty of opportunities to observe confirmation bias in a consumer’s behavior. Recently, I had to deal with a customer who had strong beliefs about her knowledge on clothing quality.
A few months ago at my job, The Children’s Place in the North Shore Mall, I had a customer asking for a particular brand for children’s workout apparel. After I told her we did not carry the brand she was looking for, she was very upset. She was convinced that this brand had quality worth the extra money she spent, which was a lot. I offered her the option to just look at the clothing we offered, but it was not up to par with what she was used to getting. In the end, she bought the clothing from The Children’s Place because she desperately needed gym clothes for her daughter the following day.
After finishing the transaction, I was satisfied that I finalized the purchase and changed her biased view of only purchasing from this
Cited: Nickerson, R. (1998). Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises. Review of General Psychology, 2, 175-220. Retrieved February 6, 2013 Science Daily. Confirmation Bias. Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, ] Environment & Technology. Retrieved February 8, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/c/confirmation_bias.htm