Rule:
When recalling information relevant to a subject, don't bother recalling information that doesn't support your viewpoint. When interpreting information (making Story), don't think of interpretations that don't support your viewpoint.

Confirmation bias is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. As a result, people gather evidence and remember information selectively, and interpret it in a biased way. See Confirmation Bias.

What is noteworthy about confirmation bias is that it supports the The Argumentative Theory. Although confirmation bias is almost universally deplored as a regrettable failing of reason in others, the argumentative theory of reason explains that this bias is Adaptive Behavior because it aids in forming persuasive arguments by preventing us from being distracted by useless evidence and unhelpful stories.

Interestingly, Charles Darwin made a practice of recording evidence against his theory in a special notebook, because he found that this contradictory evidence was particularly difficult to remember.

~~COMPLEX_TABLES~~