← all facts
decision making
You retroactively invent reasons to prefer your choice.
A 2007 study found that people misremember the features of rejected options to make their chosen one seem superior.
Once you commit to a decision, your memory shifts to highlight the flaws in what you skipped and the benefits of what you kept. Your brain rewrites the history of the decision process.
You are a stranger to the logic you used to choose.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Henkel and Mather, 2007, Choice-Supportive Bias
- What the check found
- The study demonstrates that people's memories of features can be altered by their beliefs about which option they originally chose, confirming the core of the claim.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.