wason-selection-task-1968

IN premisesummaries/2026/08/24/wiki-Confirmation_bias-chunk-5.md

Created 2026-08-25T02:58:46+00:00

In the Wason Selection Task (1968), participants overwhelmingly select confirming cards rather than falsifying ones, demonstrating confirmation bias in rule-testing.

Summary

When people are asked to test whether a rule holds, they consistently reach for examples that would support the rule rather than the ones that could expose it as false. This well-documented finding anchors the system's understanding that humans default to seeking confirming evidence over disconfirming evidence, a tendency any model of human reasoning must account for.