On “Give Reasons”:
I have read of a study (mentioned, for example here as being in Lehrer’s “How we Decide”) that students given a poster of their choice were less happy with their decision some months later i they had been asked to give reasons for their choice than if they were just given the poster with no questions. The study hypothesized that students chose based off of easily-explainable aspects rather than the aspects that actually affected their preferences.
So be careful what you give reasons for. Perhaps more aesthetic decisions should be left to the initial impression. For some things, we don’t want to overcome our biases.
On “Give Reasons”: I have read of a study (mentioned, for example here as being in Lehrer’s “How we Decide”) that students given a poster of their choice were less happy with their decision some months later i they had been asked to give reasons for their choice than if they were just given the poster with no questions. The study hypothesized that students chose based off of easily-explainable aspects rather than the aspects that actually affected their preferences.
So be careful what you give reasons for. Perhaps more aesthetic decisions should be left to the initial impression. For some things, we don’t want to overcome our biases.