3. How does confirmation bias operate in internal and external searches for information? This chapter examined the three initial stages of the consumer judgment and decision-making process. Problem recognition, the first stage, is the perceived difference between an ideal state and the actual state. When there is a discrepancy between these two states, the consumer may be motivated to resolve it by engaging in decision making.

Internal search is the recall of information, experiences, and feelings from memory. The extent of internal search generally increases as motivation, ability, and opportunity increase.

Aspects of an offer that are more salient, diagnostic, vivid, and related to goals are the most likely to be recalled. Several biases apply to internal search: confirmation bias (the tendency to remember information that reinforces our overall beliefs); inhibition

(the recall of some information inhibits the recall of other attributes; and mood (the tendency to recall mood-congruent information).