Date of Award
5-2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts - Psychology
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Scott Hutchens, PhD
Second Advisor
Scott Drury, PhD
Third Advisor
Sarah Savoy, PhD
Fourth Advisor
Rachel Jumper, PhD
Abstract
Confirmation bias — the tendency to favor belief-consistent information over contradictory evidence — represents a central challenge in contemporary misinformation research, yet its behavioral measurement has remained inconsistent across studies. This study introduced the Confirmation Bias Index (CBI), a preregistered behavioral measure defined as the difference in accuracy between ideologically congruent and incongruent headline evaluations. Using a 3 (headline slant: Conservative, Neutral, Liberal) × 2 (veracity: True, False) within-participants design, 198 participants evaluated 36 validated news headlines for accuracy. Results supported a veracity main effect and a reliable group-level confirmation bias effect indexed by the CBI. Headline slant alone did not impair accuracy. Need for Cognition failed to predict overall accuracy or CBI magnitude. Age emerged as the strongest individual-difference predictor, with older participants outperforming younger ones. Findings suggest confirmation bias is a consistent but individually undifferentiated phenomenon, and that accumulated media experience may buffer misinformation susceptibility more effectively than cognitive motivation alone.
Repository Citation
Cantu, Anthony, "Thinking Beyond Bias: The Confirmation Bias Index and the Cognitive–Motivational Predictors of Accurate Headline Evaluation" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 708.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/708
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
