COMPSCI 120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Confirmation Bias, Fallacy, Pareidolia

• School: UMASS-Amherst
• Department: Computer Science
• Course: COMPSCI 120
• Professor: Verts

Document Summary

How do you separate fact from opinion on the internet: option 1: try to find the least biased site for the topic under discussion. Harder to do (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause it"s tough to tell (cid:449)hat is least (cid:271)iased: option 2: try to find the most biased site for the topic under discussion. The bias is known and can be subtracted out. A lot of the sites we use frequently are pretty biased (cnn, fox, etc. ) Confirmation bias: (cid:862)i al(cid:449)ays (cid:449)i(cid:374) the ga(cid:373)e (cid:449)he(cid:374) i (cid:449)ear (cid:373)y lu(cid:272)ky shirt(cid:863) conveniently forget when he does(cid:374)"t (cid:449)i(cid:374) the ga(cid:373)e, (cid:271)ut re(cid:373)e(cid:373)(cid:271)ers e(cid:448)ery ti(cid:373)e he (cid:449)ears his shirt. Hindsight bias: clai(cid:373)i(cid:374)g (cid:271)ias after the fa(cid:272)t, (cid:862)i k(cid:374)e(cid:449) that all alo(cid:374)g(cid:863) Bandwagon fallacy: just (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause e(cid:448)ery(cid:271)ody (cid:271)elie(cid:448)es it does(cid:374)"t (cid:373)ea(cid:374) its true. False dichotomy: strong set of opinions that if it"s (cid:374)ot a, it (cid:373)ust (cid:271)e b refutes all the possibilities in the middle, relies on one or the other.