Feeling validated vs being correct

A recent article in the Psychological Bulletin did a meta-analysis and found that people typically preferred information that supported their pre-existing positions (normally called confirmation bias, but called congeniality bias in the article), rather than correct information that challenged these positions. This tendency is moderated by various variables. This is as expected and reinforces my view that one should use critical thinking techniques consciously to avoid fooling yourself.

Read the article by Hart et al, Feeling Validated Versus Being Correct: A Meta-Analysis of Selective Exposure to Information.

Here is the abstract from the article:

"A meta-analysis assessed whether exposure to information is guided by defense or accuracy motives. The studies examined information preferences in relation to attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in situations that provided choices between congenial information, which supported participants’ pre-existing attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, and uncongenial information, which challenged these tendencies.

Analyses indicated a moderate preference for congenial over uncongenial information (d
0.36). As predicted, this congeniality bias was moderated by variables that affect the strength of participants’ defense motivation and accuracy motivation.

In support of the importance of defense motivation, the congeniality bias was weaker when participants’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors were supported prior to information selection; when participants’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors were not relevant to their values or not held with conviction; when the available information was low in quality; when participants’ closed-mindedness was low; and when their confidence in the attitude, belief, or behavior was high.

In support of the importance of accuracy motivation, an uncongeniality bias emerged when uncongenial information was relevant to accomplishing a current goal."

Hat tip to BPS Research Digest for the reference.

The most elegant description of confirmation bias that I've encountered was from The Times obituary of Thomas Carlyle:

"Though incapable of lying, Carlyle was completely unreliable as an observer, since he invariably saw what he had decided in advance that he ought to see."