lord-1979-fictional-studies-swapped-conclusions
IN premise — summaries/2026/08/24/wiki-Confirmation_bias-chunk-1.md
Created 2026-08-25T02:58:45+00:00
In Lord et al. (1979) Stanford capital-punishment study, participants read two fictional studies with swapped conclusions and rated the study matching their prior view as better-conducted regardless of actual data.
Summary
People rated a study as higher quality simply because its conclusion matched what they already believed, even when the underlying data was identical to the other study. This matters because it shows that in that experimental setup, agreement with a desired outcome—not evidence or methodology—drove judgments of scientific credibility, meaning the study documents a hardwired shortcut where beliefs filter perception of fact.