PSYC 213 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Introspection Illusion, Brown Hair, Confabulation
16 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lecture 022 - 04/05
Reasoning & decision making:
● Hypnosis: hypnotist told her patients: when you’re under go to the plant and hug
it and forget the suggestion so the patient did it then then the hypnotist asked her
why she said “I thought the plant was cold and it needed warmth so she gave it a
hug” → an example of confabulation
● Confabulation: post hoc (after the fact) rationalization, it’s usually false
○ The real reason is the hypnotist hypnotizes her to do it
● Confabulation & rationalization are at the core of making decisions
● They studied confabulation from Peter Johansson: showed 2 faces and asked
the men which found they found more attractive
○ He then asked them why he found them more attractive
● Then he would do this again and keep on doing this until
● Even though they would point at a blond, he would switch with the picture with
the one of brunette and asked them why he liked the brunette more
○ They would not notice the switch: and when he asked them why they liked
the brunette more they would confabulate based on the image they are
now seeing
○ Aka : explaining a decision they didn’t even make in the first place
● 80-90% of people do not notice the switch
● Also in real life: people’s verbal behavior does not correspond with their
actual behavior (ie: when people say they want to date a certain type, their
boyfriends are often not that type)
○ Also did the same switch for jam preferences: people would confabulate
on the one that was given to them (and not the ones that had chosen)
● These studies look at choice blindness: when the outcome of your choice is the
stimulus that’s being changed
● Remember that change blindness is: people don’t see an obvious change
● Choice blindness blindness: if you explain choice blindness to people and they
say that they would have noticed this and they still make the same error in the
study
○ It’s a subset of introspective blindness: when you don’t know what is
happening in your head so you confabulate
● Conclusion of most studies is that: the majority of decisions that we make, we
actually don’t know why we make them even though we feel like we do
● Choice blindness across modalities: audio, visual and the pattern is the same
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Confabulation: post hoc (after the fact) rationalization, it"s usually false. The real reason is the hypnotist hypnotizes her to do it. Confabulation & rationalization are at the core of making decisions. They studied confabulation from peter johansson: showed 2 faces and asked the men which found they found more attractive. He then asked them why he found them more attractive. Then he would do this again and keep on doing this until. Even though they would point at a blond, he would switch with the picture with the one of brunette and asked them why he liked the brunette more. They would not notice the switch: and when he asked them why they liked the brunette more they would confabulate based on the image they are now seeing. Aka : explaining a decision they didn"t even make in the first place. 80-90% of people do not notice the switch.
