A journalistic novelty bias misleads on probabilistic evidence topics

Evidence

For many issues, focusing on novel or unexpected events is unproblematic. Novelty makes things salient, and salience sells papers and attracts clicks. It is what we care about. But for some subjects, including science as well as politics and economics, a novelty bias can be deeply problematic. — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 522

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the earlier tobacco-chapter theme that partial, selection-biased evidence yields false confidence. — connects to: Evenhanded journalism can itself bias public scientific belief — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False…, 61