Editing Confirmation bias (section)

=== Optimal information acquisition ===

Recent research in economics has challenged the traditional view of confirmation bias as purely a cognitive flaw.<ref name = "oi">{{cite web |last=Page |first=Lionel |date=2023-06-14 |title=Reassessing the Confirmation Bias: Is it a flaw or an efficient strategy? |url=https://optimallyirrational.substack.com/p/reassessing-the-confirmation-bias |website=Optimally Irrational |access-date=2024-10-13 }}</ref> Under conditions where acquiring and processing information is costly, seeking confirmatory evidence can actually be an optimal strategy. Instead of pursuing contrarian or disconfirming evidence, it may be more efficient to focus on sources likely to align with one's existing beliefs, given the constraints on time and resources.

Economist Weijie Zhong has developed a model demonstrating that individuals who must make decisions under time pressure, and who face costs for obtaining more information, will often prefer confirmatory signals. According to this model, when individuals believe strongly in a certain hypothesis, they optimally seek information that confirms it, allowing them to build confidence more efficiently. If the expected confirmatory signals are not received, their confidence in the initial hypothesis will gradually decline, leading to belief updating. This approach shows that seeking confirmation is not necessarily biased but may be a rational allocation of limited attention and resources.<ref name = "zhong">{{cite journal |last=Zhong |first=Weijie |year=2022 |title=Optimal dynamic information acquisition |journal=Econometrica |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=1537–1582 |doi=10.3982/ECTA17668 |doi-broken-date=5 February 2025 }}</ref>