Confirmation Bias In Dallas Buyers Club

The movie Dallas Buyers Club actually shows many examples of confirmation bias. The first major example comes early on when the main character Ron Woodroof first discovers that he has HIV. Upon first finding out, he does not respond well. He disregards the doctors diagnosis, both in an aggressively verbal manner and through his actions directly after. The diagnosis his doctors gave him was contrary to his own belief of himself, which was that he was healthy. He paid attention only to the information that confirmed that belief and the information that did that was that he wasn’t a homosexual; because in the movie it was clearly stated that people with HIV and AIDS are homosexuals who use intravenous drugs, it was “obvious” to him that he couldn’t have HIV, because he was heterosexual. He had a bias toward

It is the reason for why people ignore some information and pay attention to other information, as shown in multiple examples through the movie Dallas Buyers Club. Ron Woodroof held the belief that he was healthy, so he only paid attention to the information that proved that he couldn’t have HIV, which was that he wasn’t a homosexual. He then believed that the drug AZT would aid him in treating his illness so he only viewed the studies he read about as valid reasoning to back his belief and disregarded the doctor’s opinions. Finally, the doctors in the film also disregarded a lot of completely valid information and only paid attention to studies that proved their own beliefs, that the drug AZT is one that would advance the treatment of HIV. Although confirmation bias does not seem like a rational thing to have, it is engrained in the human brain to find validity in the human’s own beliefs and therefore ignores all (still completely valid) information that opposes the belief that the human holds. Though not entirely rational, confirmation bias is how beliefs are made