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

by Carol Tavris

In a series of experiments, Barbara Tversky and Elizabeth Marsh showed how we “spin the stories of our lives.” In one, people read a story about two roommates, both of whom did something annoying and something sociable. Then everyone was asked to write a letter about one of the roommates, either a letter of complaint to a housing authority or a letter of recommendation to a social club. As they wrote, the study participants added elaborations and details to their letters that had not been part of the original story. For example, if they were writing a recommendation, they might add, “Rachel is bubbly.” Later, when they were asked to recall the original story as accurately as possible, their memories had become biased in the direction of the letter they had written.7 They remembered the false details they had added and forgot the dissonant information they had not written about.