Abstract

The process of biased hypothesis testing, which occurs when people tend to search for information that would provide support for their hypotheses and ignore hypotheses-disconfirming information, may influence the ways individuals interact with other people, and may end up eliciting behaviors in others that actually correspond to their initial hypotheses, leading them to provide behavioral evidence for the initial expectancies. These processes of biased hypothesis testing and behavioral confirmation have been extensively studied, especially in the instructional setting as a type of self-fulfilling prophecies. In the current paper manifestations of the processes of biased hypothesis testing and behavioral confirmation in three areas of the legal system, legal decision making, police interrogations (false confessions), and eyewitness identifications, were discussed. Furthermore, procedures that can be used to minimize problems resulting from biased hypothesis testing and behavioral confirmation were explored.