Confirmation Bias

Now listen to part of a lecture on this topic in this college class. Professor: I had this friend, and she really wanted to get one of these hybrid cars. You know, they're environmentally friendly because they run on batteries and use less gas. And she's always telling me about these articles she's read that say positive things about the car, especially about how fuel-efficient it is, and she always seems to notice these cars on the street. She says it's got to be a really great car if so many people are buying it. Now, there are also many critics of this car. These critics say that it isn't very reliable, that any money that you save on gas, you actually end up spending on repairs. So when I asked her about this criticism, she said she hadn't heard about it. It's like she can find all of the positive information, but no, it's hard to miss. I even showed her an article. This article explained very clearly exactly what was wrong with the car and why it needed so many repairs. Well, my friend just looked at the article very quickly and said “ Oh, I've never trusted what they say in that magazine. They're always so negative.” And here's the funny thing. She did, in fact, buy the car, and now she has those same problems with it, but she still won't change her opinion.
Professor: I had this friend, and she really wanted to get one of these hybrid cars. You know, they're environmentally friendly because they run on batteries and use less gas. And she's always telling me about these articles she's read that say positive things about the car, especially about how fuel-efficient it is, and she always seems to notice these cars on the street. She says it's got to be a really great car if so many people are buying it. Now, there are also many critics of this car. These critics say that it isn't very reliable, that any money that you save on gas, you actually end up spending on repairs. So when I asked her about this criticism, she said she hadn't heard about it. It's like she can find all of the positive information, but no, it's hard to miss. I even showed her an article. This article explained very clearly exactly what was wrong with the car and why it needed so many repairs. Well, my friend just looked at the article very quickly and said “ Oh, I've never trusted what they say in that magazine. They're always so negative.” And here's the funny thing. She did, in fact, buy the car, and now she has those same problems with it, but she still won't change her opinion.