Pre conference: What if Sherlock Holmes had become an epidemiologist? Countering confirmation bias in health sciences

Wednesday June 8, 2022
13:30u-17:00u

Live at Radboudumc

Organization:
Mirte Boelens, Dana Moldovanu and Frank Wolters (VvE Werkgroep Junior Epidemiologen)

It is part of human nature to look for confirmation of preconceived ideas and discard inconsistencies, rather than challenge our prior beliefs. As a consequence, confirmation bias has often kept faulty scientific paradigms intact, despite –in retrospect– overwhelming evidence of the contrary. What is the impact of this bias on present-day science? And how might epidemiologists, as the guardians of validity, stand up to counter it?

In this afternoon symposium, we invite you to explore the problem of confirmation bias as well as potential solutions. We offer a cross-disciplinary programme, combining epidemiology with psychology, philosophy of science, and even thorough detective work to come to potential solutions to mitigate the impact of confirmation bias in all our research.

For more information about the pre conferences, participation, costs and registration, see: https://registratie.radboudumc.nl/130246/wiki/744836/pre-conference