Introspection Illusion

We believe we have privileged, accurate access to our own mental states and motivations — but psychological research consistently shows our self-reports are largely fabricated after the fact.

• In choice blindness experiments, participants chose between two photographs and were then handed the other one — most confabulated confident reasons for 'choosing' the photo they hadn't actually selected.
• People explain their purchasing decisions with elaborate rational justifications — but the actual drivers are emotional and largely unconscious.
• Jurors who hold racial biases deny them completely and genuinely believe their own denials.