Can Confirmation Bias Improve Group Learning?

  • Gabriel N
  • O’Connor C
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Abstract

Confirmation bias has been widely studied for its role in failures of reasoning. Individuals exhibiting confirmation bias fail to engage with information that contradicts their current beliefs, and, as a result, can fail to abandon inaccurate beliefs. But although most investigations of confirmation bias focus on individual learning, human knowledge is typically developed within a social structure. We use network models to show that moderate confirmation bias often improves group learning. However, a downside is that a stronger form of confirmation bias can hurt the knowledge-producing capacity of the community.

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APA

Gabriel, N., & O’Connor, C. (2024). Can Confirmation Bias Improve Group Learning? Philosophy of Science, 91(2), 329–350. https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.176

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