Sunday, March 2, 2008

Introspection supported via laboratory results

Fruit bias on p.57 of Tim Harford's The Logic of Life:

"The experiments offered some subjects a snack: fruit or chocolate. Seven out of the ten subjects asked for chocolate. But when the experimenters offered other subjects a different choice, the answer was different too: 'I'll bring you a snack next week. What would you like then, fruit or chocolate?' Three-quarters of the subjects chose fruit."

This doesn't mean that my thoughts are any more likely to be "true" in the future, unfortunately.