# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/peter-cathcart-wason
# Generated: 2026-08-14T00:59:10.788Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/peter-cathcart-wason"
name: "Peter Cathcart Wason"
slug: "peter-cathcart-wason"
description: "Peter Cathcart Wason was an English cognitive psychologist at University College, London, who pioneered the psychology of reasoning. He sought to explain why people consistently commit logical errors. He designed problems and tests to demonstrate these behaviours, such as the Wason selection task, the THOG problem and the 2-4-6 problem. He also coined the term \"confirmation bias\" to describe the tendency for people to immediately favor information that validates their preconceptions, hypotheses and personal beliefs regardless of whether they are true or not."
tagline: "British psychologist (1924-2003)"
image: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Grave_of_Peter_Cathcart_Wason_in_Highgate_Cemetery.jpg/330px-Grave_of_Peter_Cathcart_Wason_in_Highgate_Cemetery.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United Kingdom"
  isoCode: "GB"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1924-04-22"
deathDate: "2003-04-17"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           47.71
  momentum:             7.639751552795032
  historical:           8.097338666666666
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     50.00000000000001
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%BC%E5%BE%97%C2%B7%E8%8F%AF%E7%94%9F"
    title: "彼得·華生"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%AA%D8%B1_%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%AA%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%B1_%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%86"
    title: "پیتر کاتکار واسن"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cathcart_Wason"
    title: "Peter Cathcart Wason"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wason"
    title: "Peter Wason"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cathcart_Wason"
    title: "Peter Cathcart Wason"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cathcart_Wason"
    title: "Peter Cathcart Wason"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%AA%D8%B1_%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%AA%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA_%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86"
    title: "پیتر کاتکارت واسون"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cathcart_Wason"
    title: "Peter Cathcart Wason"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%ED%94%BC%ED%84%B0_%EC%9B%A8%EC%9D%B4%EC%8A%A8"
    title: "피터 웨이슨"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13561980"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump