IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-16278-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Confidence drives a neural confirmation bias

Author

Listed:
  • Max Rollwage

    (University College London
    Max Planck University College London Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research)

  • Alisa Loosen

    (University College London
    Max Planck University College London Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research)

  • Tobias U. Hauser

    (University College London
    Max Planck University College London Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research)

  • Rani Moran

    (University College London
    Max Planck University College London Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research)

  • Raymond J. Dolan

    (University College London
    Max Planck University College London Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research)

  • Stephen M. Fleming

    (University College London
    Max Planck University College London Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research
    University College London)

Abstract

A prominent source of polarised and entrenched beliefs is confirmation bias, where evidence against one’s position is selectively disregarded. This effect is most starkly evident when opposing parties are highly confident in their decisions. Here we combine human magnetoencephalography (MEG) with behavioural and neural modelling to identify alterations in post-decisional processing that contribute to the phenomenon of confirmation bias. We show that holding high confidence in a decision leads to a striking modulation of post-decision neural processing, such that integration of confirmatory evidence is amplified while disconfirmatory evidence processing is abolished. We conclude that confidence shapes a selective neural gating for choice-consistent information, reducing the likelihood of changes of mind on the basis of new information. A central role for confidence in shaping the fidelity of evidence accumulation indicates that metacognitive interventions may help ameliorate this pervasive cognitive bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Max Rollwage & Alisa Loosen & Tobias U. Hauser & Rani Moran & Raymond J. Dolan & Stephen M. Fleming, 2020. "Confidence drives a neural confirmation bias," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-16278-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16278-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16278-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-16278-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Vogrin & Guilherme Wood & Thomas Schmickl, 2023. "Confirmation Bias as a Mechanism to Focus Attention Enhances Signal Detection," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 26(1), pages 1-2.
    2. Cattaneo, Cristina & Grieco, Daniela, 2021. "Turning opposition into support to immigration: The role of narratives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 785-801.
    3. Athota, Vidya S. & Pereira, Vijay & Hasan, Zahid & Vaz, Daicy & Laker, Benjamin & Reppas, Dimitrios, 2023. "Overcoming financial planners’ cognitive biases through digitalization: A qualitative study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    4. Gruener, Sven, 2019. "An empirical study on Internet-based false news stories: experiences, problem awareness, and responsibilities," SocArXiv xbez9, Center for Open Science.
    5. Richard D Lange & Ankani Chattoraj & Jeffrey M Beck & Jacob L Yates & Ralf M Haefner, 2021. "A confirmation bias in perceptual decision-making due to hierarchical approximate inference," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(11), pages 1-30, November.
    6. Sophie Beukelaer & Neza Vehar & Max Rollwage & Stephen M. Fleming & Manos Tsakiris, 2023. "Changing minds about climate change: a pervasive role for domain-general metacognition," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-16278-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.