In this open-access book chapter (free on Kindle and Nook), myself and Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick take a “multimotive” approach to the confirmation bias – the tendency to seek out and be ammenable to information that supports what we already believe.
In summary: It’s not just about wanting to be right. We also do this to get along with others. For full details, please see the chapter itself. It uses plain language and should be accessible to non-academics (or, at least, I tried :). It concludes with some suggestions for how to weaken this bias in others and promote more “ideal” information processing.
Do also take a look at the rest of the chapters in this fantastic volume on “Knowledge Resistance” featuring some of the best researchers in communication science.
Sude, D.J., & Knobloch-Westerwick, S. (2022). Selective exposure and attention to attitude-consistent and attitude-discrepant information: Reviewing the evidence. In Strömbäck, J., Wikforss, A., Glüer, K., Lindholm, T., and Oscarsson, H. (Eds.) Knowledge resistance in high-choice information environments.Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003111474
Daniel Sude, Ph.D. 