From literature or life, you may be familiar with the character of the jealous lover, who refuses to accept any evidence that his or her affections are reciprocated and who everywhere finds evidence fueling suspicions.

As Marcel Proust, author of In Search of Lost Time, wrote: "It is astonishing how jealousy, which spends its time inventing so many petty but false suppositions, lacks imagination when it comes to d iscovering the truth." In more prosaic terms, the jealous lover exhibits confirmation bias.