University of Colorado Boulder

November 10th, 2017

To: Justin Atwell

From: Rachel Saggau

Aaron Pineda
Quinn Kudzma Park
Mikaela Lodl

Subject: Progress on Confirmation Bias Research

Introduction:
American politics have become increasingly polarized in the past several decades. Individuals
are more uniform in their ideological beliefs and strongly dislike members of the opposing party.
Increased levels of political participation are correlated with increased polarization. A possible
source of this stems from the fact the average voter votes emotionally rather than rationally.
Polarization alone is not enough to explain the spreading divide; however, affective polarization
may help to explain the phenomena. That is to say that because people are emotional voters, it
increased their bias against the opposite political party. A proposed source for this affective
polarization is confirmation bias, meaning that people when free to make their choices will select
information that confirms their previous beliefs rather than seeking alternate information. In this
research project the prevalence and awareness of confirmation bias in relation to politics will be
explored with focus groups.

Completed Work:
Questions and topics for the focus groups have been finalized. The grading key has also
been finalized. It may be difficult to analyze the amount of data we will collect, because
it is rather subjective. We will need to stick to our grading criterion as much as possible
We have decided that we will carry out a total of four focus groups; two will be blind and
two will be informed the topic of confirmation bias. Each focus group will be composed
of anywhere from five to eight participants. This will make guiding each focus group
much easier and the possibility of them going off topic much lower.
We have decided that each focus group will include two researchers as well as the
participants. One researcher will be taking notes, while the other guides the participants
through the questions and spurs conversation in a productive manner. With consent from
the participants, the session will be recorded so points can be played back for
clarification.

Work In Progress:
We need to carry out the focus groups.
 Analysis of the results from the focus groups must be completed.
The first draft of our research report needs to be completed and submitted. After that
finalization and revision will be the last step before submission..
The presentation must be planned and practiced.

Timeline:
Date Goal
11.13 Hold Focus Group 1 and 2
11.15 First Draft Research Report
11.16 Hold Focus Group 3 and 4
11.17 Analyze Data from Focus Groups
11.27 Final Draft Research Report
12.6 Plan Presentation
12.11 Start of Presentations
12.16 Date of Final/End of Presentations

Conclusion:
As of now we are adhering to the timeline and will complete all of the goals that we have set for
our research project. The research report will be finalized and submitted by the planned date with
top quality. While we still have a lot of research ahead of us, the resulting report should provide
supporting data and insight on confirmation bias. It should also give insight as to whether or not
confirmation bias causes affective polarization in a political environment.