Expectation-based and data-based illusory correlation: the effects of confirming versus disconfirming evidence

The review analyzes the capabilities of modern technologies of structural neuroimaging of the retina, standard perimetry, and studies of ocular blood flow in the early diagnosis and management of glaucoma. The relevance of the search for those structural and functional changes that are primary in the development of glaucomatous optical neuropathy (GON) and the diagnostic method that has the greatest clinical significance is discussed. Progress in understanding the pathogenesis of glaucoma and the expansion of scientific understanding of key risk factors for the development and progression of the disease, including genetic factors, can be crucially important to substantiate new strategies for preclinical diagnosis and the development of radically new approaches to personalized and preventive glaucoma therapy. However, the search for what arises most early with in primary open-angle glaucoma — changes in structure or function — will not have clinical relevance unless you take into account the capabilities of specific methods of structural and functional neuroimaging that represent information at various levels of organization of the visual system. The search for a single primary factor in the pathogenesis of GON can lead to an erroneous exaggeration of the close relationship between the variables being studied, which in reality either does not exist as a causal relationship or is significantly less than what is supposed — the phenomenon called “illusory correlation”. The reliable diagnosis of early changes that occur before the clinical manifestation of glaucoma is most likely to be based on a combination of structural, functional, and hemodynamic indicators, aimed not only to increase the sensitivity of diagnosis in detecting the earliest events in the development of GON, but rather to dramatically improve the understanding and quality of interpretation of those markers that we own.

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Snakes vs. Guns: A Systematic Review of Comparisons Between Phylogenetic and Ontogenetic Threats

10.31234/osf.io/6uyfg ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Soheil Shapouri

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Fear Conditioning ◽

Attention Bias ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Stimulus Selection ◽

Imaging Studies ◽

Behavioral Experiments ◽

Future Directions ◽

Illusory Correlation ◽

Specific Phobias

The potential differences between phylogenetic threats (e.g., snakes) and ontogenetic threats (e.g., guns) can have a wide-ranging impact on a variety of theoretical and practical issues, from etiology of specific phobias to stimulus selection in psychophysiological studies, yet this line of research has not been systematically reviewed. Here, we summarize and synthesize findings from fear conditioning, illusory correlation, attention bias and neuroimaging studies that have compared these two types of threats to human survival. While a few brain imaging studies reveals preliminary evidence for different brain networks involved in the processing of phylogenetic and ontogenetic threats, attention bias studies tentatively show faster reaction time for modern threats, illusory correlation bias is evident for both types of threats, and fear conditioning studies are far from conclusive. The results of behavioral experiments, especially attention bias research, pose a challenge to established theories like biological preparedness and fear module. We discuss the findings in terms of other theories that might explain the same results and conclude with potential future directions.

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Studying and Challenging Racism in Higher Education: Naming Bad Faith to Understand the “Logic” of Racism

Education Sciences ◽

10.3390/educsci11100602 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 602

Author(s):

Antar A. Tichavakunda

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Critical Race Theory ◽

Black People ◽

Hate Crimes ◽

Critical Race ◽

Bad Faith ◽

Race Theory ◽

High Profile ◽

Disconfirming Evidence

In this conceptual essay, the author argues that bad faith is a valuable concept in understanding and challenging racism in higher education. The philosopher Lewis Gordon argues that racism is a manifestation of bad faith. For the actor who sees Black people as less than human, for example, no evidence will allow the actor to see otherwise. Bad faith is the disavowal of any disconfirming evidence which allows actors to maintain their worldviews. The author draws from high profile examples of racism in higher education as conceptual cases to make his argument. Specifically, the author demonstrates how attacks upon Critical Race Theory in education, the currency of critiques of microaggressions research, and the perennial difficulty to name racist violence on campus as hate crimes operate upon a logic of racism through bad faith.

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Tax Professional Decision Biases: The Effects of Initial Beliefs and Client Preference

Journal of the American Taxation Association ◽

10.2308/jata.2004.26.s-1.1 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 26 (s-1) ◽

pp. 1-29 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Jennifer B. Kahle ◽

Richard A. White

Keyword(s):

Repeated Measures ◽

Confirmation Bias ◽

Substantial Effect ◽

Repeated Measures Design ◽

Initial Belief ◽

Client Preference ◽

Tax Professionals ◽

Psychology Literature ◽

Disconfirming Evidence ◽

Professional Judgments

While many studies have inferred confirmation bias in a tax decision-making context, the tax professional's initial belief has usually been the same as the client-preferred position. The objective of this study was to disentangle the effects of evidence direction (confirming or disconfirming evidence) and client preference on tax professionals' belief revisions following the examination of additional evidence. In a repeated-measures design, participants recorded an initial belief and a revised belief in response to two independent fact scenarios. Consistent with research related to auditors, but inconsistent with the psychology literature, the results of this study indicate that tax professionals react in a manner opposite to the predictions of confirmation bias, particularly when the evidence reviewed is counter to the client's wishes. Further examination reveals that the client preference has a more substantial effect on tax professional judgments when the evidence being reviewed confirms the professionals' initial beliefs than when it disconfirms their initial beliefs.

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