Choice-Supportive Bias
We remember our choices as better than they actually were.
Choice-supportive bias is the tendency to retroactively ascribe positive attributes to an option we have selected. After making a decision, we tend to remember the chosen option as having more positive attributes and the rejected alternatives as having more negative attributes than we perceived at the time. This protects self-esteem but distorts learning from past decisions.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Everyday life Car Purchase Memory After buying a blue sedan over a red hatchback, a buyer remembers the sedan as having far better fuel economy than it actually had, and forgets the hatchback's advantages.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
She switched to a cheaper gym with fewer machines. Even though it's always crowded, she tells herself the longer wait times help her build patience and focus.
After choosing a smartphone model, a buyer consistently highlights its camera quality and battery life, downplaying the bloatware and occasional software glitches.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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