A recent study shows people are twice as likely to seek information that confirms their beliefs than they are to consider evidence that contradicts thems. WSJ Intelligent Investor columnist Jason Zweig tells Kelsey Hubbard how this “confirmation bias” can influence their financial decisions.
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. —John Kenneth Galbraith
Knowing that the vote over the weekend in Greece was really a referendum on Euro membership, a majority of the Greek Parliament said yes to staying. European Finance Ministers meet again on Wednesday to solidify the 2nd bailout package for Greece at the same time hopefully a deal is consummated between Greece and its creditors this week. The Greek 14.5b euro bond that matures on March 20th is up by 2 pts. The optimism that all will be completed and contained AGAIN to Greece has yields lower in Portugal, Spain and Italy. The iTraxx Financial Index is also narrower by...
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November 16th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
See the book “Seeking Wisdom: Munger to Darwin” much more on this topic.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
How does one fight the bias that about 2/3 of Wall Street are greedy pr##ks? :)
November 16th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
How is this any different from people who seek affirmation of their political, religious, (fill in the blank) beliefs? In my opinion, most people allow their beliefs (certainty of the unknowable) to supersede their knowledge of the facts.
Some people call this insanity.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:12 am
My bias is that I am an idiot. Hard to shake it.