the inclination to believe what one wants to believe theme
Pointedly illustrated or mentioned is the human tendency to interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or strengthens one's prior personal beliefs or hypotheses. In short, to believe and confirm what one is already inclined to believe.
Examples
In tz2019e1x04 "A Traveler", Mr. A. Traveler is in fact an alien with mysterious mind reading abilities who cleverly manipulates people by inventing insidious fictions that play to their hopes and prejudices.
11 total · 2 choice · 7 major · 2 minor
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| ahh1x04 | choice | All of the witnesses were apparently sincere, but some may simply have convinced themselves that they saw what they wanted to have seen. The army man wanted to convict a sports car driver because such a driver had killed his three year old son. A young woman had changed her testimony in the novelist's favor after she came to credit the novelist with indirectly having saved her from putting up her baby for adoption. |
| tz2019e1x04 | choice | A. Traveler manipulated people in the community by telling lies that played to people's hopes and prejudices. |
| ahh2x14 | major | Grace point blank refused to believe the truth about her beloved Keith even when she was shown evidence by the police that he was a crook. Deranged, she went so far as to shoot her trusted servant dead because she blamed her for shattering her cherished delusions. |
| ahh2x17 | major | Each townsperson saw what they wanted to see in the strange jar. |
| ahh2x31 | major | Someone told Howard that Isabel was a homely spinster who dreamed of being swept up by a man. As a result, she convinced herself that Howard was not her attacker. She later married him. |
| movie: 12 Angry Men (1957) | major | the jury concluded that the two witnesses had in fact false convinced themelves that they saw and heard things that they most likely never did |
| rbt1985e3x02 | major | One interpretation of the story is that the wondrous mirage was real and that people saw in it the place they most yearned to be. |
| rbt1985e5x03 | major | Each townsperson saw what they wanted to see in the strange jar. For instance, Juke feared that the jar held the remains of a helpless kitten that his mother had forced him to drown in the river in his childhood. The bereaved Mrs. Tridden, by contrast, was adamant the body of her dead baby was in the jar. |
| tftc1989e5x02 | major | The evidence against his wife was absurdly weak yet Leon jumped on any explanation for why his wife wouldn't sleep with him. |
| columbo1971e0x01 | minor | A disguised Joan doubted that she would pass for Ray's wife, Carol. Ray, however, assuaged her anxiety by citing the so-called "Principle of Association", which he summed up as something to the effect of "people see what they expect to see, and not what is really there". |