History Main / ConfirmationBias

* ''ComicBook/UnkeptPromise'' heavily engages in this by turning a group of teenagers into a bunch of mouthpieces for the views of the "[[DryCrusader Legion of Truth]]," who published this comic in the first place. According to the comic, ''all'' alcoholic beverages in any form and in any amount lead to alcoholism (and there is no such thing as "moderate drinking"). It rarely (if ever) lets the other side have a voice and presents all the arguments against alcohol in a format that doesn't allow for the other side to be explored. For example, at no point are wine-growing countries in Europe, where wine is combined with good food, a fairly active lifestyle, and not drinking heavily, even discussed.

* ''ComicBook/UnkeptPromise'' heavily engages in this by turning a group of teenagers into a bunch of mouthpieces for the views of the "[[DryCrusader Legion of Truth]]," who published this comic in the first place. According to the comic, ''all'' alcoholic beverages in any form and in any amount lead to alcoholism (and there is no such thing as "moderate drinking"). It rarely (if ever) lets the other side have a voice and presents all the arguments against alcohol in a format that doesn't allow for the other side to be explored. For example, at no point are wine-growing countries in Europe, where wine is combined with a fairly active lifestyle and not drinking heavily, even discussed.

* Much of Creator/LewisBlack's material pre-2009 was essentially a liberal critique of the UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush administration, individuals within it, and cultural conservatives paired with over-the-top facial expressions and screaming in reaction to those things. Hilarious if you're a culturally liberal person, but mostly just plain insulting if you aren't.
** At the beginning of his set during one of his tours, he said (paraphrasing): "You are all here to listen to a bitter old man rant and rave for an hour, and that's very sad." Naturally, the audience roared with applause at this.

* Lampshaded by Marn in the finale of ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', who calls out [[BigBadEnsemble the Jedi Covenant]] for DramaticallyMissingThePoint of the [[DreamingOfThingsToCome vision of the future]] that kicked off the plot because it didn't line up with their [[KnightTemplar extreme fundamentalist view of the Force and what it meant to be a Jedi]]; it's painfully obvious [[SentientCosmicForce the Force]] was warning them of what would happen if they continued down their path (i.e., they would all die and a powerful Sith Lord would arise), but the Covenant instead chose to interpret it as a warning of what would happen if they didn't become ''more'' extreme, and in doing so, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy they seal their fates]].

** And ''I Drew This'', by ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie'' creator Creator/DanaSimpson.

* In-universe, this is the most prevalent bias that the narrator Loose Change is guilty of in ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed''. Loose Change holds the belief that everything that happens in history ties into a vast conspiracy, with Princess Celestia as the evil mastermind of it all. This is despite mountains of evidence to the contrary showing that Celestia is actually a benevolent ruler, and Loose Change goes out of her way to ignore information that contradicts her claims. The few times that Loose Change calls the rest of the "idiot historians" correct is only when they match her beliefs. Loose Change's terrible reasoning skills in her essay, however, are {{played for laughs}}, as the fic's author intentionally made Loose Change out to be an UnreliableNarrator.

* The documentary ''Film/{{Gasland}}'' is about the supposed harm caused by hydraulic fracturing ('Fracking') of rock to mine natural gas. As the ''Podcast/{{Skeptoid}}'' [[http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4275 podcast points out]], it is hard to know what to make of the movie, since it's devoted to proving that fracking is dangerous and generally assumes all of the ill effects to local people (such as tap water that is ''flammable'') are caused by fracking and aren't simply natural phenomena specific to the area. Yet, conversely, most of the high-profile criticism of the movie has come from the natural gas industry, so it is very difficult to find an unbiased opinion on the subject.
** There's also the fact that towards the end of the movie's production, the critics it was based on who had supposedly proved many of the dangers of fracking were discovered to have been frauds. When asked how the movie was going to address it, it was suggested that in the movie, the fraudulent critics would be portrayed as [[FalseFlagOperation secretly being in the employ of the companies that would profit from fracking]] and that they ''allowed'' themselves to be revealed as frauds to discredit fracking critics.
* A significant factor in the plot of ''Film/MyCousinVinny''. The Police investigating the shooting hear one of their suspects say "I shot the clerk?" and interpret it not as a question, but as a statement.

* Morgan Spurlock's ''Film/SuperSizeMe'' famously followed the filmmaker as he lived on nothing but UsefulNotes/McDonalds for thirty days, eating everything on the menu at least once and super-sizing every time it is offered, suffering significant health and weight issues as a result. This appears to have been greatly aided by Spurlock suddenly changing to a sedentary lifestyle, eating far more than he needed to, and sleeping a lot, as no one has been able to reproduce his results. Spurlock did all he could to reach the conclusion he wanted to reach, while many other studies have shown that combining [=McDonald's=] food with an active lifestyle and not overeating does not lead to health or weight issues. Spurlock himself tries to justify this in the documentary by claiming he was replicating the non-active lifestyle of the average American, but many still accuse him and the film of being [[DocumentaryOfLies disingenuous at best, outright lies at worst]].

* Rather refreshingly averted with ''Film/SavingChristmas.'' Producer and star Kirk Cameron seemed convinced that no matter what the critical appraisal, the film would find an audience with hard-core Christians looking for a good Christmastime flick. However, the film's agenda of endorsing the commercial or hedonistic aspects of Christmas rather than the loving spiritual ones caused most Christians to hate the film too.

* This is part of the HypeBacklash that ''Film/Parasite2019'' got after it swept the Oscars and was heaped with constant praise by critics. Some who came away from the film less impressed accused the people who praised it of not caring about the movie's actual merits, only [[CapitalismIsBad its socio-political themes]], which they just happened to agree with.

* ''Literature/TheGodDelusion'' by UsefulNotes/RichardDawkins (whose thesis is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what it sounds like]]) is a notable example. Naturally, when Alister [=McGrath=] wrote ''The Dawkins Delusion'' (a book that argues against Dawkins' book), almost anyone who agreed with Dawkins' book automatically disliked [=McGrath=]'s book, whereas those who disagreed with Dawkins' book were almost always immediate fans of [=McGrath=]'s book. Even if a book were itself unbiased, the readers' bias would likely result in a similar reaction. As with many of these examples, [[PraisingShowsYouDontWatch very few actually]] [[MainstreamObscurity read them both]], as noted in the reviews themselves.
* Creator/CSLewis' ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' series and Creator/PhilipPullman's ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' series are {{author tract}}s for Christianity and atheism, respectively. Lewis didn't originally ''intend'' his work to turn into one, while Pullman ''very much'' intentionally wrote his series with promoting atheism in mind (as well as making an anti-religious rebuttal to Lewis); as a result, ''His Dark Materials'' is a ''lot'' more frank and up-front about its message. {{Justified|Trope}} in the case of ''Narnia'' as it was never intended as a tool for conversion, but for an already-Christian readership to explore their own beliefs in a fantastic setting.
* ''Literature/LeftBehind'' is largely only liked by people who already believe in the Rapture. However, the author's beliefs regarding the rapture, the afterlife, and who is "worthy" is very old testament and controversially exclusive (the "only rapture-believing Christians who have said the phrase 'I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior' at some point"[[note]]which inexplicably includes the Pope[[/note]] and "you only get one chance if you've never heard of the Bible until then" rules being the most obvious) make a lot of mainstream Christians uncomfortable because it reeks of DisproportionateRetribution.
* Michael D. O'Brien's ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheLastDays'' series has a similar effect, being essentially a Catholic version of the former (without a Rapture, which is not Catholic dogma). Regardless of the writing, it comes strongest to those who tend to share the author's "traditional Christian" views.

* Literature/{{Spenser}} has occasionally discussed confirmation bias regarding police investigations, noting that cops tend to go with the simplest explanation for a crime. However, he has also pointed out that the simplest explanation really ''is'' the correct one most of the time, and for the few times it isn't, the fact is that the police always have lots of cases they're trying to clear (and there's always another eleven or more about to show up), so they don't have time to do an in-depth investigation of a crime that to all appearances has been solved.

* Confirmation bias drives the mindset of the Reapers in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series. They were created by an advanced ArtificialIntelligence who became convinced that synthetic life would inevitably attack and destroy organic life, and created the Reapers as a way to supposedly "preserve" organic life in a synthetic form. The idea that organics and synthetics could co-exist peacefully (as demonstrated by [[{{Fembot}} EDI]], the geth, and [in ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda''] [[BenevolentAI SAM]]) never occurred to them or were considered one-off anomalies every time the situation popped up.

[[folder:Other]]

* Quinton Reviews discussed this a fair bit in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jziiOMeChrc "Paul Is Dead"]] video, focusing on how many conspiracy theorists rely on this to get evidence--the massive catalog of Music/TheBeatles material made it pretty easy for aspiring theorists to find cases of Music/PaulMcCartney being singled out or separated. In a more serious context, he pointed out a WhoShotJFK documentary that claimed there was a man with a gun in the infamous "grassy knoll" photograph. When they reached someone who claimed to have been there and seen three men, the documentary immediately "found" two other men in the photo, whom they had never noticed before despite poring over the photo constantly. The area these men were "seen" in is small, grainy, indistinct, and dark, meaning if you wanted to, you could say pretty much anyone was there and it would be difficult to disprove.

* Creator/JoeDante has a bad tendency to do this in his TV work. This led to the latter half of ''Series/EerieIndiana'' being unwatchable by anyone who wasn't a capital-L liberal.

'''Woman:''' ''(picks the latter result)'' I... knew it!\\
'''Google:''' ''(screaming)'' Just because I ''have it'' doesn't mean it's TRUE!

* Creator/BillMaher falls under this, hard. His highly political material, paired with his tendency to try to be edgy, makes him a very divisive comic prone to clapter/criticism, depending on who's watching.

* In-universe, this is the most prevalent bias that the narrator Loose Change is guilty of in ''FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed''. Loose Change holds the belief that everything that happens in history ties into a vast conspiracy, with Princess Celestia as the evil mastermind of it all. This is despite mountains of evidence to the contrary showing that Celestia is actually a benevolent ruler, and Loose Change goes out of her way to ignore information that contradicts her claims. The few times that Loose Change calls the rest of the "idiot historians" correct is only when they match her beliefs. Loose Change's terrible reasoning skills in her essay, however, are {{played for laughs}}, as the fic's author intentionally made Loose Change out to be an UnreliableNarrator.
* Discussed in ''FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'': to make Hermione a better researcher, Harry puts her through the "2-4-6 task", an experiment created by Peter Wason, the real-life psychologist who coined the term "Confirmation Bias": Harry writes down and folds up a "rule" that certain triplets of numbers follow and tasks Hermione with figuring out what it is. Hermione can say as many triplets of numbers as she likes and Harry will say "Yes" or "No" depending on if they follow the rule or not. As a starting point, Harry says that the triplet "2, 4, 6" follows the rule. Hermione tests the triplets "4, 6, 8", "10, 12, 14", "1, 3, 5", and "-3, -1, 1" and is told "Yes" for all of them. Hermione guesses that the rule is that each number is increased by two. Harry doesn't answer and points out that less than 20% of people can guess the correct answer. Hermione then tests "2, 5, 8" and "10, 20, 30" and also gets yes for both, leading her to revise her answer to "each number must increase the same amount each time". Harry gives her the paper, and to her shock, the actual rule is "Three real numbers in increasing order, lowest to highest". Harry then points out that Hermione had only come up with triplets that would confirm the hypothesis she already had in her mind and was content to end the experiment without getting a single "No" response, leading her to come up with a result much more specific than the real one.
* Confirmation bias becomes a plot point in ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/story.php?no=10229&rewrite=true Father Goose and the Black Knight]]'' (a Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer / Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit crossover fanfic). Detective Stabler is so convinced that the only reason why an adult man like Xander Harris would be associated with a school for teenage girls is that he (Xander) is a pedophile. Of course, the truth is that the girls are all Slayers-in-Training, and Xander is one of their three teachers (the other two being a Watcher and Faith).

* Confirmation bias is one of the many criticisms of Creator/PureFlix's ''Film/GodsNotDead'' and its [[Film/GodsNotDead2 sequel]]. Both of the films don't seem to do much other than play to the persecution complex that many American Christians have by making public education institutions out as atheist/liberal-run establishments bent on stamping out Christianity and portrays every character who isn't a Christian as being a miserable {{Jerkass}} who's hostile towards Christians. Not to mention the court cases cited in the end credits of both films as evidence that the films' plots are happening in real life; if you actually look into them, you'd see that none of them come close to the films' plots, but rather were cases of Christians discriminating against LGBT students or just more right-leaning political issues.

* ''Literature/BehindTheSandratHoax'': Dr. Bancroff firmly refuses to believe that sandrats survive without water or that eating one can prevent dehydration. While conducting tests that support this claim, he deprives captive sandrats of their regular food, which, combined with their digestive system, lets the sandrats go without water. He spends the next four years citing this test while denying that people are surviving in the desert because of sandrats despite their stories offering no other explanation for how they survived. Dr. Cathcart publishes an article that derides Bancroff as an administrator with no scientific imagination and writes that "[[I]]n science, theories are based on ''facts,'' not vice-versa." Bancroff replies by firing Cathcart

* The Evening Standard for 2014-08-18 published [[http://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/naked-truth-when-reading-the-script-9676283.html a short piece about Daniel Radcliffe]] whose author took the opportunity to have a dig at ''Literature/TheCasualVacancy'', quoting from a scene and then saying that it is "not erotic". [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer As anyone knows who has actually read the novel would know]], the scene takes place in primary school, and the participants are all five years old, so ''of course'' it isn't erotic -- it isn't meant to be. (And the fact that the author of the piece considered even for a moment that the scene ''might'' be erotic is deeply suspect.)

* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'': A consistent plot point in each killing game is that Monokuma believes that despair and self-preservation will overcome the players enough to kill without remorse. Of course, he doesn't count the "incentives" he gives such as [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc threatening family members]], [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair sending out a virus that makes people insane]], or [[spoiler:''[[Anime/Danganronpa3 making players kill themselves]]]]'' to ensure somebody dies on time as contributing to these outcomes.

* In his Youtube podcast series ''Afterburner'', conservative American pundit Creator/BillWhittle often falls to this kind of logic, such as when attributing Plano, TX' record homicide lows to their [[UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics high gun ownership rate]] -- [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano,_Texas and absolutely no other factors]]. Another [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuv0K8H8ILM example]] has him concluding that America's ''laissez-faire'' economic model had [[CulturalPosturing made the country more inventive and ingenious]] than 'Socialist' countries like Sweden. His compelling evidence: the clicks he needed on Website/TheOtherWiki to find entries on American and Swedish inventions.
* Gleefully parodied [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2444 in this strip]] of ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal''.
* The ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'', although even most people of the same view think he's insane. This is especially noticeable with the sources cited in the tracts. At least 90% of them are published by Chick himself. Which means he is pretty much creating his own research material.

* {{Played with}} in regards to Website/YouTube videos about conspiracy theories. There will be a few instances where the title points in one direction, but the content points another direction, and sometimes there will be an admission that this is done to draw in the opposing crowd.

* People who follow the Young Earth movement--that is, who believe that God literally created the world in a week and the planet is only 6000 years old based on Biblical evidence--tend to consider all evidence to the contrary (such as fossils and artifacts carbon-dated to more than 6000 years old) as having been placed there either by God or the Devil (depending on who you ask) to "test their faith". Others claim it shows a scientific conspiracy against "Biblical truth", or the biologists/geologists ''own'' biases (never mind that many prominent scientists in these fields are/were themselves Christians-they switch to them being "[[NoTrueScotsman not the right kind]]" if it's pointed out).

* A harmless, but still telling example: there was an experiment where they would tell people three numbers and ask them to guess the "rule" they followed. They would start with something like 2/4/6 and, starting from that example, most participants assumed it was "even numbers increasing by two" and would ask things like if 8/10/12, 14/16/18, and so on followed it until eventually making the guess. It turns out they were wrong: the rule is really "any three numbers in increasing order". What makes this so interesting is how easy it would be for those involved to ''disprove'' their theory (e.g ask "does 5/7/9 fit?") yet not one person involved thought to do this.

* ''WebComic/GrrlPower'' tackles the WolvesAlwaysHowlAtTheMoon trope when it introduces a werewolf character. As he explains, wolves howl a lot, and occasionally there's a moon, but since wolves howling at the moon is such a romanticized image, people only notice when it happens.

* Creator/CSLewis' ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' series and Creator/PhilipPullman's ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' series are {{author tract}}s for Christianity and atheism, respectively. Lewis didn't originally ''intend'' his work to turn into one, while Pullman ''very much'' intentionally wrote his series with promoting atheism in mind (as well as making an anti-religious rebuttal to Lewis); as a result, ''His Dark Materials'' is a ''lot'' more frank and up-front about its message. {{Justified}} in the case of ''Narnia'' as it was never intended as a tool for conversion, but for an already-Christian readership to explore their own beliefs in a fantastic setting.

* InUniverse, ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' has Saint-Doctor Thomas Aquinas warning Dante against believing that he sees the world as God as perfectly as God, for his perception passes on truth "like an artist who knows his craft but has a hand that trembles." If he fails to recognize the faults of his opinions, Dante will fall into the ranks of idiot philosophers and heretics, since "affection for one’s own opinion binds, confines the mind."

* Those [[Advertising/GetAMac Mac vs. PC ads]] that depend entirely on AdHominem and misconceptions to sell their points to the audience, which in most cases either already agrees, disagrees, and is already aware of what is untrue about the ads, [[UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} Took A Third Option]], or is very easily DistractedByTheShiny, which admittedly usually tends to work in Apple's favor.

* This is undoubtedly one of [[AuthorTract two reasons]] that ''The O'Reilly Factor'' and ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' exist. By extension, any show (or book, or radio program, or ''whatever'') with a severe political slant is going to fall into this at some point as the [[PanderingToTheBase Invisible Hand]] pulls them in that direction. There's almost no pundit who doesn't.

* This is undoubtedly one of [[AuthorTract two reasons]] that ''Series/TheOReillyFactor'' and ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' exist. By extension, any show (or book, or radio program, or ''whatever'') with a severe political slant is going to fall into this at some point as the [[PanderingToTheBase Invisible Hand]] pulls them in that direction. There's almost no pundit who doesn't.

* Confirmatino bias is a big part behind the legend of TheBermudaTriangle. While there have indeed been some shipwrecks or disasters in the region, it's a region twice the size of France, directly next to the well-traveled Caribbean and Florida, and therefore accidents of that sort cropping up would be downright expected. Most actual analyses of the region say that it's no more dangerous than you'd expect a place of its size and level of traffic to be; if anything, it's relatively safe by the standards of shipping routes. Additionally, due to the legend surrounding the place, events that would simply be described as "shipwrecks", "crashes", or "accidents" anywhere else get turned into "mysterious disappearances" when they happen in the Triangle. After all, it's easy to say that a ship "was never seen again" when it sunk in the middle of the ocean.

* One variant of this is called [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kafkatrapping kafkatrapping]][[note]][[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No relation to]] KafkaKomedy[[/note]], in reference to Creator/FranzKafka's ''Literature/TheTrial''. It's when you accuse someone of something, and then take their denial as a SuspiciouslySpecificDenial that only further proves the accusation.

'''Woman:''' ''(picks the latter result)'' I knew it!\\

* Music/TimMinchin invokes and mocks this in his song "Thank You God". It starts with Tim telling a story of an Australian man named Sam, who prayed to God to cure his mother's eyesight, and her eyesight improved. Though Tim goes into an apparently sincere apology to God, it quickly turns into a sarcastic takedown of Sam's brand of "miracle" story as being biased towards people who are print to believing it. Tim also spends part of the song citing the fact that many people who tell such stories are pretty well-off as it is.