Preferences influence choices we make

Asian News International:

We come to place more value on the options we chose and less value on the ones we rejected be it choosing between presidential candidates or household objects, researcher say.

One way of explaining this effect is through the idea of cognitive dissonance. Making a selection between two options that we feel pretty much the same about creates a sense of dissonance.

Re-evaluating the options after we’ve made our choice may be a way of resolving this dissonance.

This phenomenon has been demonstrated in numerous studies, but the studies have only examined preference change shortly after participants make their decision. Existing research doesn’t address whether these changes in preference are actually stable over time.

Read the whole story: Asian News International