On issues of fact, such as whether the bus has just passed, we usually feel comfortable to accept information from a stranger; in situations where emotions are involved we are more likely to rely on our own feelings than what others report. Gilbert et al. (p. 1617) demonstrated that this confidence may be misplaced. In a speed-dating scenario, women were asked for their subjective evaluations before and after a 5-minute encounter with a single man. The women who had only been supplied with a man's profile and photograph fared significantly worse in predicting their after-the-fact reaction to their date than women who were supplied with an evaluation of a man from their predecessor.
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