Editing Confirmation bias (section)

=== Mass delusions ===
Confirmation bias can play a key role in the propagation of [[mass delusion]]s. [[Witch trial]]s are frequently cited as an example.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Lidén |first=Moa |date=2018 |title=Confirmation bias in criminal cases |chapter=3.2.4.1 |publisher=Department of Law, Uppsala University |chapter-url=http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1237959/FULLTEXT01.pdf |access-date=20 February 2020 |archive-date=20 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220083720/http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1237959/FULLTEXT01.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Trevor-Roper |first=H.R. |date=1969 |title=The European witch-craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and other essays |publisher=London: HarperCollins}} {{ISBN?}}</ref>

For another example, in the [[Seattle windshield pitting epidemic]], there seemed to be a "pitting epidemic" in which windshields were damaged due to an unknown cause. As news of the apparent wave of damage spread, more and more people checked their windshields, discovered that their windshields too had been damaged, thus confirming belief in the supposed epidemic. In fact, the windshields were previously damaged, but the damage went unnoticed until people checked their windshields as the delusion spread.<ref>{{cite podcast |url=https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-constant/e/64112747 |title=The constant: A history of getting things wrong |website=constantpodcast.com |host=Chrisler, Mark |date=24 September 2019 |access-date=19 February 2020 |mode=cs2 |archive-date=20 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220083721/https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-constant/e/64112747 |url-status=live }}</ref>