Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts

by Carol Tavris

“naïve realism,” the inescapable conviction that we perceive objects and events clearly,

It is precisely because these accounts are so emotionally powerful that thousands of people have been drawn to construct “me, too” versions of them.

Those who jumped to a conclusion early on were also the most confident in their decision and were most likely to justify it by voting for an extreme verdict.

The moral of our story is easy to say, and difficult to execute. When you screw up, try saying this: “I made a mistake. I need to understand what went wrong. I don’t want to make the same mistake again.”