Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “A Case of Mental Courage,” by David Brooks (column, Aug. 24):

I agree that much of contemporary political discourse has been marked by
rampant confirmation bias—the tendency to seek out evidence
consistent with our beliefs, and deny, dismiss and distort evidence that
is not.

Compounding this tendency, as the Princeton University psychologist
Emily Pronin has shown, is the fact that virtually all us readily
perceive confirmation bias in others, but not in ourselves. We see
ourselves as eminently reasonable and those who disagree with us as
foolish, deluded or dishonest.

Given that large pockets of talk radio, cable television and the
blogosphere on both the extreme left and extreme right feed this
confirmation bias by promoting self-assurance rather than
self-criticism, it is hardly surprising that the current political
environment is more partisan than ever.

Scott O. Lilienfeld
Atlanta, Aug. 24, 2010

The writer is a psychology professor at Emory University.

Note from KBJ: In my experience, progressives are far more likely than conservatives to exhibit confirmation bias.