Question 1

What is the difference between Confirmation bias and Motivated reasoning?

Accepted Answer

Confirmation bias is about which evidence you look at; motivated reasoning is about wanting a particular answer. The distinction matters because you can show confirmation bias with nothing at stake at all — Wason's number triples had no emotional content whatsoever.

Question 2

How do I know if I mean Confirmation Bias rather than Motivated reasoning?

Accepted Answer

Readers who land here meaning Confirmation Bias rather than Motivated reasoning are usually searching for phrases like “why do I only find evidence I agree with”, “what is confirmation bias simple”, “how to test your own beliefs”.

Aspect	Confirmation bias	Motivated reasoning
Driven by	Test strategy	Desired conclusion
Needs a stake	No	Yes
Conscious	Rarely	Sometimes
Fix	Test the opposite	Name the want

Side by side

Which one did you mean?

Confirmation Bias

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