Disfluency disrupts the confirmation bias: when changing the font changes your mind

Research on the confirmation bias (Nickerson, 1998) demonstrates that people selectively seek evidence that confirms their prior beliefs and expectations. This selective search for information allows people to analyze new information in an efficient, but shallow way. The present research discusses how experienced difficultly in processing (disfluency) can reduce the confirmation bias by promoting careful, analytic processing. In two studies, I found that participants with prior beliefs about an issue supported their own side less when given counter-arguments presented disfluently. The change occurred for both naturally occurring attitudes (i.e. political ideology) and experimentally assigned attitudes (i.e. positivity towards a court defendant). These results suggest that changing the style of an argument’s presentation can lead to attitude change by promoting more comprehensive consideration of opposing views