Editing Confirmation bias (section)

=== Exploratory versus confirmatory ===
Psychologists [[Jennifer Lerner]] and [[Philip Tetlock]] distinguish two different kinds of thinking process. ''[[Exploratory thought]]'' neutrally considers multiple points of view and tries to anticipate all possible objections to a particular position, while ''confirmatory thought'' seeks to justify a specific point of view. Lerner and Tetlock say that when people expect to justify their position to others whose views they already know, they will tend to adopt a similar position to those people, and then use confirmatory thought to bolster their own credibility. However, if the external parties are overly aggressive or critical, people will disengage from thought altogether, and simply assert their personal opinions without justification. Lerner and Tetlock say that people only push themselves to think critically and logically when they know in advance they will need to explain themselves to others who are well-informed, genuinely interested in the truth, and whose views they do not already know. Because those conditions rarely exist, they argue, most people are using confirmatory thought most of the time.<ref>{{Citation|editor= Sandra L. Schneider|title=Emerging perspectives on judgment and decision research|year=2003|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|location=Cambridge [u.&nbsp;a.]|isbn=978-0-521-52718-7|page=445|author=Shanteau, James}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Haidt|first=Jonathan|title=The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion|year=2013|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|isbn=978-0-14-103916-9|pages=87–88}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|editor1-first=Susan T.|editor1-last=Fiske|editor2-first=Daniel T.|editor2-last=Gilbert|editor3-first=Gardner|editor3-last=Lindzey|title=The handbook of social psychology|year=2010|publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]]|location=Hoboken, NJ|isbn=978-0-470-13749-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/handbookofsocial5ed2unse/page/811 811]|edition=5th|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofsocial5ed2unse/page/811}}</ref>