Backfire Effect
The tendency for corrected misinformation to strengthen a person's original false belief rather than change it.
When presented with evidence contradicting their beliefs, some people double down instead of updating their views. This often happens because challenges to core beliefs feel like personal attacks, triggering emotional defensiveness. For example, someone convinced a political claim is true might become even more certain after seeing it debunked, viewing the correction as biased.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
When presented with evidence that the supplement he takes is ineffective, Mike blames the pharmaceutical industry for funding the study and buys an extra six months' supply.
After being shown that a famous quote is misattributed, Nancy believes the misattribution makes the quote more meaningful.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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