In cognitive science, choice-supportive bias is a tendency to retroactively ascribe positive attributes to an option one has selected.
For example, researchers have used written scenarios in which participants are asked to make a choice between two options.
Later, on a memory test, participants are given a list of positive and negative features, some of which were in the scenario and some of which are new. A choice-supportive bias is seen when both correct and incorrect attributions tend to favor the chosen option, with positive features more likely to be attributed to the chosen option and negative features to the rejected option.
Henkel and Mather (2007) found that giving people false reminders about which option they chose in a previous experiment session led people to remember the option they were told they had chosen as being better than the other option. This reveals that choice-supportive biases arise in large part when remembering past choices, rather than being the result of biased processing at the time of the choice.
Older adults are more likely than younger adults to show choice-supportive biases, which may be related to older adults' greater tendency to show a positivity effect in memory.
Choice-supportive bias is potentially related to the aspect of cognitive dissonance explored by Jack Brehm (1956) as postdecisional dissonance. Within the context of cognitive dissonance, choice-supportive bias would be seen as reducing the conflict between "I prefer X" and "I have committed to Y".
See also
- Choice
- Decision making
- List of cognitive biases
- List of memory biases
- Wishful thinking
- Post-purchase rationalization
- Escalation of commitment
References
- Henkel, L. A., & Mather, M. (2007). Memory attributions for choices: How beliefs shape our memories. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 163-176. PDF
- Mather, M., & Johnson, M. K. (2000). Choice-supportive source monitoring: Do our decisions seem better to us as we age? Psychology and Aging, 15, 596-606. PDF
- Mather, M., Shafir, E., & Johnson, M. K. (2000). Misrememberance of options past: Source monitoring and choice. Psychological Science, 11, 132-138. PDF
External links
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