Human beings who are uncomfortable with the scientific method or its findings are missing out. We are exceedingly limited in our perceptions; as organisms we are, to put it brutally frankly, quite flawed. However, as thinking entities we are unparalleled. The inability or unwillingness of many of us to appreciate cognitive bias is unfortunate. It severely limits one's potential since it leads all too readily to complacence, to a determination that one has all the answers. It can compound fundamentalism, it can lead to the discounting or even demonization of others and it easily leads into a vicious cycle whereby the sufferer is unable to extricate themselves from the biases due to a lack of recognition that they exist. Confirmation bias, for example, impairs an individual's capacity to recognize new information, among which may well be concepts such as that of confirmation bias.
It can be argued that science has some elements similar to that of religion. The priesthood, the lingo, the exclusivity and schisms. It is, however, the most humanely valuable religion yet devised if one chooses to see it as such. And sharing those aspects with it in no way legitimizes any other religion. They merely elucidate the history of science and some psychological facts of how humans and societies interact. And having some idea how humans and societies interact is one of the most important things a human, living in a society, can hope to understand. Hypotheses, tests and theories are exceedingly valuable for arriving at this, and many other, understandings. Surrendering to cognitive biases can easily truncate this process. And so, appreciating them is valuable for leading us into a positive cycle of comprehending, questioning, discerning facts from non-facts and opinions and from there to new understanding.
Separating belief from knowlege is a fundamental skill with which scientific methods are useful. Falsifiable hypotheses and testing are solutions to the problem of counterfactual or non-factual reasoning and the disasters that often ensue when this sort of reasoning is applied to real-life situations. Appreciating that this skill is not entirely inherent, that there are in fact evolved behaviors that work against it, can help us hone it. Obviously, there are aspects to our sentience and biology, our ability to use language and our opposable thumbs for example, that have lent and continue to lend themselves to the pursuit of science and technology. But there are just as obviously aspects that work against them, including our cognitive biases and endocrinal/emotional systems.
Some cognitive biases are perceptual: that is, they actually affect our ability to perceive. Persistence of vision is a fascinating example. Others are more conceptual. They (mis)direct our thinking. The most fundamental of these may be egocentric bias, the idea that the individual's understanding of reality is somehow of greater value than those of others. If this seems circular to my advocating a methodical system of understanding, do attend to the fact that such methods have, in fact, given us medicine, electronics and flight. Fundamentalism has not. It is the height of egocentric bias, to have the temerity to believe that one knows the mind of god. And it has unfailingly truncated and prevented useful thought.
Cognitive bias should be fun! It needn't be something to deny, or even particularly to battle. Simply being aware of it and making some kind of effort to see through it should be adequate. Reference class forcasting has been a demostrable failure, after all. It is probably useless, as of yet, to codify strategies for dealing with cognitive bias. Until we have some clue what cognition is, how have we any hope? Just enjoy the noise your mind makes, value and recognize your mistakes and dig experiences like this.