Common barriers to problem solving: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:37, 19 March 2012

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Within the field of science there exists a fundamental standard named the Scientific Method, which describes the process of discovering facts or truths about the world through unbiased consideration of all pertinent information, and impartial observation of and/or experimentation with that information. According to this theory, one is able to most accurately find a solution to a perceived problem by performing the aforementioned steps. The Scientific Method is not a process that is limited to scientists, but rather it is one that all people can practice in their respective fields of work as well as in their personal lives. Confirmation bias is in essence one’s unconscious corruption of the scientific method. Thus when one demonstrates confirmation bias, he or she is formally or informally collecting data, and then subsequently observing and experimenting with that data in such a way that favors a preconceived notion that may or may not have motivation. Motivation refers to one’s desire to defend or find substantiation for beliefs (e.g., religious beliefs) that are important to him or her. According to Nickerson (1998), those involved in committing the genocide that occurred from the 1400s to 1600s demonstrated confirmation bias with motivation<ref></ref>{{cite journal|last=Nickerson, |first=R. S. (1998). |title=Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. ''|journal=Review of General Psychology'', ''2''(2), |year=1998|pages=175-220. |doi: =10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175|accessdate=1 March 2012}}</ref></ref> . However, confirmation bias does not necessarily require motivation. In Wason’s (1960) experiment that examined selective testing, it was discovered that participants would work to confirm hypotheses that they had proposed, which did not support a personally significant belief. In the experiment participants viewed three numbers and were then asked to hypothesize a rule that was used to create the triplet of numbers. When testing their hypotheses, participants tended to only create additional triplets of numbers that would confirm their hypotheses as opposed to attempting to create triplets that would disprove their hypotheses.