But once the words are spoken, they take on added significance to the person who spoke them. At the moment of choice, these explicit, verbalized reasons weigh heavily in the decision. As time passes, the reasons that people verbalized fade into the background, and people are left with their unarticulated preferences, which wouldn’t have steered them to the poster they chose. As the salience of the verbalized reasons fades, so, too, does people’s satisfaction with the decision they made.
