Choice Blindness

Choice blindness is the failure to notice a mismatch between the option a person actually chose and the option they are later asked to explain, together with a readiness to confidently justify a choice they never made. In the researchers' original demonstration, participants were shown two photographs of faces and asked which they found more attractive; they were then handed what they believed was their chosen photograph, using sleight of hand to substitute the other one, and asked to explain their preference. A majority of participants failed to detect that the photograph in front of them did not match their earlier choice, and many went on to confabulate detailed reasons for preferring a face they had not actually selected. The finding is taken as evidence that people often lack reliable introspective access to the real basis of their own preferences and decisions, readily constructing a plausible-sounding explanation after the fact rather than reporting the true cause of a choice.