Confirmation bias studies: towards a scientific theory in the humanities

Abstract

This article argues that a global crisis of interpretation can and should be confronted by humanities programmes in UK and similar universities. It contends that raising the standards of proof for theoretical models of interpretation in the humanities will help reverse erosions of trust undermining democratic institutions and expertise. To this end, it considers how financial challenges facing UK universities mould the teaching of theory in the humanities and the knowledge this teaching gives rise to. The article considers how standards of proof from the social sciences can interrogate theory in these conditions, developing it and increasing its assurance. The essay illustrates this claim through a series of sample theories and literary works: Roland Barthes’ ‘Death of the Author’, the Orientalism derived of Edward Said, Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart and Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. From these examples the essay draws larger conclusions, the biggest of which is a new subfield of study for the humanities: Confirmation Bias Studies. The article is structured as follows. In ‘Part 1: Introduction’, the article considers the openness of literary theory to confirmation bias, which is considered historically, in cognitive processes, especially those processes in the age of the internet, and in educational processes in the humanities. In ‘Part 2: Procedure’, the article explores the challenges of applying a confirmation bias approach to literary theory as a means of interpretation. In ‘Part 3: Conclusion’, the article summarises the key strategies for overcoming confirmation bias in theoretical approaches to the humanities discovered in the article.