Joe Maddon…victim.

Confirmation bias is the most pernicious of all biases, the most natural, and the hardest one to deal with, since it is hard-wired into everyone’s brain. It is nearly indistinguishable from wisdom and experience, you see, but it is a bias nonetheless, and like all biases, makes us stupid. Confirmation bias prevents us from accepting and processing new information objectively, and leads us to see it in the light most favorable to what we already believe, sometimes when that light is decidedly dim or even non-existent.

Baseball is full of vivid ethics lessons, and the post-season, with such high-profile games and thick media coverage is annually an ethics smorgasbord, if you look hard enough. Saturday, Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon, widely regarded as the smartest manager in the game, showed us how confirmation bias works, and the damage it can do. Continue reading →