When we prefer to believe something, we may approach the relevant evidence by asking ourselves, "what evidence is there to support this belief?".. Note that this question is not unbiased: It directs our attention to supportive evidence and away from information that might contradict the desired conclusion. Because it is almost always possible to uncover some supportive evidence, the asymmetrical way we frame the question makes us overly likely to become convinced of what we hope to be true. Thomas Gilovich
Some Similar Quotes
  1. There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it. - Shannon L. Alder
  2. Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying, ' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.' I daresay you haven't had much practice, ' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as... - Lewis Carroll
  3. When people have invested their identities into clichés, the only counter argument they have is 'being offended'. - Stefan Molyneux
  4. [Men] prefer the foolish belief and the passions of the earth [to the enlightenment of their souls]. They believe the absurd and shrink from the truth."" No, they do not. They are afraid, that is all. And they must remain on earth until they come... - Iain Pears
  5. Your strength will be found when you stop struggling with yourself, instead of thinking everyone is a struggle worth overcoming. Every obstacle in life is a lesson that teaches us, not others. - Shannon L. Alder
More Quotes By Thomas Gilovich
  1. When examining evidence relevant to a given belief, people are inclined to see what they expect to see, and conclude what they expect to conclude. Information that is consistent with our pre-existing beliefs is often accepted at face value, whereas evidence that contradicts them is...
  2. People will always prefer black-and-white over shades of grey, and so there will always be the temptation to hold overly-simplified beliefs and to hold them with excessive confidence
  3. What we believe is heavily influenced by what we think others believe
  4. For desired conclusions, we ask ourselves, "Can I believe this?", but for unpalatable conclusions we ask, "Must I believe this?
  5. It seems that once again people engage in a search for evidence that is biased toward confirmation. Asked to assess the similarity of two entities, people pay more attention to the ways in which they are similar than to the ways in which they differ....
Related Topics