Health psychology/Cognitive biases · Persecutory cognitionlow yield

Bias against disconfirmatory evidence

What it means

"Belief inflexibility": failing to revise a strongly held belief when shown evidence that contradicts it — a reasoning bias that sustains delusions.

Worked example

Shown clear, direct evidence that his belief is mistaken, a patient discounts it and his conviction is unchanged.

In the exam

Presented with unambiguous evidence that directly contradicts his fixed belief, a patient dismisses the evidence out of hand and holds the belief exactly as before.

What settles it

Bias against disconfirmatory evidence is failure to REVISE a belief when contradicted (maintenance). Jumping to conclusions is forming the belief on too little evidence in the first place (formation).

Classically confused with

Jumping to conclusions

Source: Moritz & Woodward; cognitive model of delusions