1 hour, 4 minutes
What We Now Know That We Didn’t Know Then
Confirmation bias occurs when people actively search for and favor informational evidence that confirms their preconceptions or hypothesis while ignoring or slighting adverse or mitigating evidence. It’s a type of cognitive bias, a pattern of deviation in judgement that occurs in particular situations leading to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgement or illogical interpretation, and represents an error of inductive inference toward confirmation of the hypothesis under study.
“This happens all the time in my specialty. I see it all the time in papers that I’ve reviewed … JFK’s autopsy report says, “according to available information, 3 shots were heard and the president fell forward bleeding from the head.” A body was given to these guys and they’re told that he was shot from above and behind: ‘Here’s the body. Figure it out. Give us the evidence that will prove the conclusions that you already know he was shot from above and behind.’ They weren’t dishonest men. They weren’t lying. They were trying to put together something that they knew had to fit… Junk science is everywhere pervasive.”
Dr. Gary Aguilar is an author and lecturer, a leading authority on the medical evidence associated with President Kennedy’s assassination, and is one of the few non-government experts ever given access to the JFK autopsy photos and x-rays. Dr. Aguilar is an AARC Board member.
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