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Researcher Michael Gazzaniga has hypothesized that an “interpreter” in the left frontal cortex attempts to make sense of things, even for the wrong reasons. A new Swedish study examines mismatches between intention and outcome and provides evidence of our ability to rationalize mistakes.
A group of 120 participants (70 women) were shown 15 pairs of pictures with female faces and were asked to choose the more attractive face of each pair. Time intervals for deliberation were randomized to 2 seconds, 5 seconds, and unlimited time. Card pairs were categorized as having high or low similarity. During six trials, participants were immediately shown their chosen card again and asked to verbalize their reasons for that choice. On three of these tri…