Confirmation Bias: Why We Find What We're Looking For
In 1960, Peter Wason showed subjects the sequence 2-4-6 and told them it followed a rule. To discover the rule, they proposed triples. Almost universally, subjects proposed triples that fit their hypothesis — 4-6-8, 10-12-14 — and almost never proposed triples that could disprove it. The rule was simply 'any ascending sequence.' Confirmation bias: the systematic tendency to search for, favor, and remember information that confirms what we already believe.