Confirmation bias (also known as positive bias) is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or strengthens one’s prior personal beliefs or hypotheses [1]. For example, one might test hypotheses with positive rather than negative examples, thus missing obvious disconfirming tests.
See also: Motivated skepticism, Availability heuristic, Surprise, Narrative fallacy, Privileging the hypothesis, Heuristics and Biases
External Links
Speculations on the Future of Science by Kevin Kelly
On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task by P.C. Wason
Confirmation Bias, Wikipedia