Strong in Your Beliefs? Maybe Weak in Your Accuracy
Blondes are always stupid. Men aren't as empathetic as women. Women are worse drivers than men. Strong convictions . But are they always correct? Strong convictions can blind us to information that challenges them, according to a new study reported by newswise.com. When people are highly confident in a decision, they take in information that confirms their decision, but fail to process information which contradicts it, finds a University College London brain (UCL)imaging study. The study, published in Nature Communications , helps to explain the neural processes that contribute to the confirmation bias entrenched in most people's thought processes, the website notes. It's called bias, and "Our study found that our brains become blind to contrary evidence when we are highly confident, which might explain why we don't change our minds in light of new information," newswise quotes lead author, PhD candidate Max Rollwage (Wellcome Centre for Human Ne...