The final form of confirmation bias I want to introduce is by far the most pervasive—and, partly for that reason, by far the most troubling. On the face of it, though, it seems like the most benign, because it requires no active shenanigans on our part—no refusal to believe the evidence, like Elizabeth O’Donovan, no dismissal of its relevance, like the stubborn Scotsman, no co-opting of it, like George Bush. Instead, this form of confirmation bias is entirely passive: we simply fail to look for any information that could contradict our beliefs.
