> ...a hypothesis in mind and then looked to see if figures might support it.

So, this effort was different.  It was confirmation bias - forming a viewpoint first, and then looking for data to support that viewpoint, but not looking for data to refute that viewpoint.

The problem with the "big data" available, and the wealth of online resources is that one is very likely to find data to support almost anything one looks for.

But I did an undergrad paper (for "Course 6" at a small vocational school across the Charles from the Esplanade) on confirmation bias, so I know a bit about it.  My summary of my paper was:

Based on anecdotal data from a sample size of 12 non-random people, confirmation bias has been confirmed to not exist. 
This was verified by ignoring data that disagreed with the proposition that it does not exist.

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