Are Psychologists biased? Confirmation and representativity bias in psychology university students

Abstract

Cognitive bias has been referred to as an issue with various consequences for psychologists. This paper studies representativity and confirmation bias in a sample of psychology students (n=65).  An online questionnaire containing two tasks was applied: one to assess representativity bias and another to assess confirmation bias, as well as a personality test. Results suggest that the career year is not related to the bias level reported by the participants. However, significant statistical differences were found in the levels of bias by gender and place of residence. Women showed higher levels of representativity bias and urban residents higher levels of confirmation bias. The results' relevance and linked factors are discussed. Furthermore, a review of possible debiasing interventions is included.