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self deception
You will invent reasons for choices you never made.
A 2005 study showed participants would justify why they chose a face they did not actually pick during a manipulated swap.
Your brain prefers narrative consistency over objective accuracy. When faced with an outcome, you construct a retrospective justification to explain your preference. You remain unaware that your choice was manipulated because you trust your internal reasoning process blindly.
Your convictions are often a retrospective fabrication.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Hall and Johansson, 2005
- What the check found
- The study, 'Choice Blindness' by Lars Hall and Petter Johansson (Science, 2005), is a landmark paper in psychology demonstrating that people often confabulate justifications for choices they did not actually make.
- 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.