Hi team,
Can someone clarly explain what is the difference between conservatism and confirmation exactly? Conservatism is not taking into account new information adequately and confirmation is seeking only the points to confirm your previous view. At least this was my understanding. But when practicing this question below, it says conservatism rather than
" Discuss how Gerber displayed conservatism bias. Cite three examples from the reading"
And the answer is "Conservatism bias, a cognitive error, is a belief perseverance bias in which people maintain their prior views or forecasts by inadequately incorporating new information. This cognitive error has aspects of both statistical and information-processing errors. Gerber displayed conservatism bias by maintaining his prior views on ABC without adequately incorporating new information. There are several examples of new information that was either ignored or inadequately considered:
the delays in initiation of Phase Two trials;
the discouraging results from Phase One;
the cautionary language from the CEO; and
the chief scientist’s statement indicating that there were “major obstacles to overcome.”
Gerber disregarded all the negative news and cautionary language that was released by ABC. Gerber failed to incorporate the new information into his analysis of ABC. The impact was a loss to the foundation, which could have been reduced had Gerber incorporated the information into his analysis and adjusted the foundation’s holdings of ABC."
Not pasting the original essay since its too long but the answer basically states all the negative reasons that was ignored. what I want to know is: couldn’t the prompt have been written as “Discuss how Gerber displayed confirmation bias?” The same answer would apply if it was phrased like this as well right?