How Confirmation Bias Affects Decision Making | Yale SOM?

Confirmation bias is when your brain likes to find clues that match what it already thinks, like a detective who only looks for evidence that supports their guess.

Imagine you have a favorite cereal, and you believe it's the best one ever. Every time you try a new cereal, your brain tries to convince you it’s not as good as yours. That’s confirmation bias in action, your brain is helping you stick with what you already know, even when there might be better options.

Think of confirmation bias like choosing your favorite team at school. If you pick the blue team, you’ll notice all the cool things they do and forget about the red team’s awesome plays. Your brain is like a cheerleader for your favorite team, it only wants to shout praise and ignore the other side.

When you're picking what to wear or which game to play, confirmation bias can make you choose the same thing every day because your brain thinks that’s best. But sometimes, trying something new could be more fun, like discovering a new game nobody else plays!

So even though your brain is helping you out, it might also stop you from seeing other great choices.