Oddly Wired
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confirmation bias

You filter out information that challenges your beliefs.

A 1979 study found that when shown opposing studies on capital punishment, people rated evidence confirming their view as credible and dismissed contradictory evidence as flawed.

Confirmation bias creates a protective barrier around your existing worldview. You do not treat all evidence equally; you work harder to discredit data that proves you wrong.

You are not looking for the truth, you are looking for validation.

Where this comes from

Study
Lord, Ross, and Lepper, 1979, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
What the check found
The citation and the core finding are correctly attributed to the 1979 JPSP study by Lord, Ross, and Lepper.
Confidence
Well replicated
confirmation biasbeliefpsychology

Related

One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.