Bias from choice

When a baby reaches for one stuffed animal in a room filled with others just like it, that seemingly random choice is very bad news for those unpicked toys. The baby has likely just decided she doesn't like what she didn't choose.

Though researchers have long known that adults build unconscious biases over a lifetime of making choices between things that are essentially the same, Johns Hopkins University found that even babies engage in this phenomenon demonstrates that this way of justifying choice is intuitive and somehow fundamental to the human experience.

People assume they choose things that they like. But research suggests that's sometimes backwards. We like things because we choose them. And, we dislike things that we don't choose.

"I chose this, so I must like it. I didn't choose this other thing, so it must not be so good. Adults make these inferences unconsciously," said Lisa Feigenson, a Johns Hopkins cognitive scientist. "We justify our choice after the fact."

This helps explain why some people who choose one party or candidate over another continue to justify that choice, even when presented with evidence to suggest that the choice might have been misinformed.