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decision making
You can be convinced you chose the rejected option.
In a 2005 study, 75% of participants failed to notice when researchers swapped their preferred photograph for the one they had initially rejected.
Participants not only accepted the switch but also provided detailed reasons for why they preferred the image they had actually turned down. This suggests that the mind often creates post-hoc rationalizations for decisions after they have been made.
We are often narrators of our choices, not the architects.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Johansson et al., 2005, Science
- What the check found
- The study, 'Failure to detect mismatches between intention and outcome in a simple decision task' (Johansson et al., 2005), confirms participants failed to detect the switch in roughly 74% of trials.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.