Merely knowing about the confirmation bias helps to avoid it.
Or so I think. Ever since reading about the confirmation bias and taking some time to think of examples where I fell prey to it I catch myself following up a thought of this makes so much sense or this fits my exerience so well with a simple confirmation bias and thinking of alternative explanations or counter examples. The use for myself is not yet obvious and it is obvious I do not do this with perfect consistency. Another observation is that applying this debiasing takes conscious effort and time, so is ressource depleting, motivating it to use with care, not in all cases where it possibly won’t even matter.
To apply the debiasing to this observataion itself: An alternative explanation is that simple mental maturity and not reading about the confirmation bias lead me to recognise it. Maybe reading the label just allowed me to put it on things, as I know of examples from the past where I thought not necesseraly, it might be like this. Of course I can make nearly no statement about increased frequency or precision.
Merely knowing about the confirmation bias helps to avoid it.
Or so I think. Ever since reading about the confirmation bias and taking some time to think of examples where I fell prey to it I catch myself following up a thought of this makes so much sense or this fits my exerience so well with a simple confirmation bias and thinking of alternative explanations or counter examples. The use for myself is not yet obvious and it is obvious I do not do this with perfect consistency. Another observation is that applying this debiasing takes conscious effort and time, so is ressource depleting, motivating it to use with care, not in all cases where it possibly won’t even matter.
To apply the debiasing to this observataion itself: An alternative explanation is that simple mental maturity and not reading about the confirmation bias lead me to recognise it. Maybe reading the label just allowed me to put it on things, as I know of examples from the past where I thought not necesseraly, it might be like this. Of course I can make nearly no statement about increased frequency or precision.