Mistral Dawn's Musings: Confirmation #Bias Among The #Stars... ;-)

Who Is Mistral Dawn?

Mistral Dawn is a thirty-something gal who has lived on both coasts of the US but somehow never in the middle. She currently resides in the Southeast US with her kitty cats (please spay or neuter! :-)) where she works as a hospital drudge and attends graduate school. Taken By The Huntsman is her first effort at writing fiction and if it is well received she has ideas for several more novels and short-stories in this series. Please feel free to visit her on FaceBook or drop her a line at mistralkdawn@gmail.com

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Confirmation #Bias Among The #Stars... ;-)

Hey Everyone!! :-)

I'm back today with another peek at what Petri is up to. Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from book two of the Petri Dish Chronicles:

As she sifted through the memories of what she had found in the ocean of minds, she realized that there were still a lot of pieces missing. She had glimpses and hints at what the Arcanum were doing, but without the missing parts she couldn't put it all together into something that made sense. There were only two things that were clear to her, there was something the Arcanum were worried about that they hoped she would help them with and she wasn't at all what they had expected when they started their experiment.

She wasn't sure if that last was a good thing or a bad thing. But the fact that they had a problem they hoped she could fix was something she thought she might be able to take advantage of. If she could convince them that they were right, that she was the solution to their trouble, then maybe she could convince them not to hurt her or her friends.

It was a place to start, at least. One thing that seemed to be true across every other species she had ever dealt with, it didn't usually take too much effort to convince people that what they wanted to believe was true was actually true. The Arcanum were utterly alien to her, but she hoped that so-far-universal blindspot extended to them as well.

Sighing, Petri reminded herself that she could fall prey to that pitfall as well. She needed to be careful. Especially, since the Arcanum could read her thoughts, which made it impossible for her to discuss such a plan with her friends. It was all starting to make her head hurt.

This kind of convoluted thinking was why she had always stuck to being a dolly and had never tried to branch out into con games. She sucked at the wheels within wheels within wheels type of manipulations they required. And, like most things in the underworld, if you couldn't play such games well, you were better off not playing them at all. Because failure was often synonymous with death.

Hmmm...I wonder if the Arcanum are as susceptible to confirmation bias as we poor humans are. I guess Petri is about to find out! Stay tuned to see if she survives the experience. Happy reading, everyone! :-)