Where do bad decisions come from? Mostly from distortions and biasesa whole series of mental flawsthat sabotage our reasoning. We all fall right into these psychological traps because theyre unconscioushardwired into the way we all think. Though we cant get rid of them, we can learn to be alert to them and compensate for themmonitoring our decision making so that our thinking traps dont cause judgment disasters. One of these traps is Confirming Evidence: Seeking information that supports your existing point of view.

A CEO considering canceling a plant expansion asks an acquaintance, who canceled such an expansion, for advice. She, of course, says to cancel.

Avoiding Confirming Evidence Trap:

Check whether youre examining all evidence with equal rigor.

Ask a respected colleague to argue against your potential decision.

Avoid yes-men.

I am looking for an anecdote that illustrates the concept of Confirming Evidence Trap. To illustrate this concept, I need two parts:

Part 1: The anecdote describes a project situation (e.g., school projects, social projects, volunteer experiences, extracurricular activities). The project situation should relate to the concept. The situation can be a positive one ( where something good happened on the project) or a negative one (where something didn't go well on the project).

Part 2: Explains why what happened was good or bad.

(around 80 words should be enough (around 100 words should be enough