Daniel Gilbert Quotes

If you tailor your news viewing so that you only get one point of view, well of course you're going to think somebody else has got a different point of view, and it may be wrong.

It's so funny because no matter what you say, fans only read and hear what they want.

People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.

We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do.

I only use statistics to reinforce what I already think, or if it's something unusual.

People hear what they want and expect to hear, not what is said.

We all have a tendency to use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost – for support, not for illumination.

When you know the answer you want, it is often all too easy to figure out a way of getting it.

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.

Most people see what they want to, or at least what they expect to.

We listen to those whom we know to be of the same opinion as ourselves, and we call them wise for being of it; but we avoid such as differ from us.

One of the things I found is that the things we want to say for well-intentioned motives often cause more harm than good. People don't need our words. They mainly need our presence, they need our love. And if you come in too quickly with explanations, you may do more harm than good.

People would believe propagate, spread rumors or conspiracy theories in order to protect their own system of denial.

People don't need sex so much as they need to be listened to.

There are no kinder or better people in the world than those who listen to you when you are 18.

It's a pity people pick and choose what they learn from the Bible.

A friend is more concerned about helping people than getting credit. A friend cares. A friend loves. A friend listens. And a friend reaches out.

It's safe to talk openly and honestly with people because they're not really listening.

We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for.

When a friend needs consoling, do not give in to the temptation of telling stories similar to theirs of disaster or bereavement. It is something people often do to show empathy but nothing is more tiresome than other people's problems when you want to focus on your own. Listening is by far the best form of consolation.

In deep pain, people don't need logic, advice, encouragement, or even Scripture. They just need you to show up and shut up.

People have now been absorbing only that they agree with. You know, part of it is if you're liberal, you consume liberal information. If you're a conservative, you consume conservative information. And there's a certain stridency in both that you know everything, and if somebody doesn't agree with you, you think they don't know what they're talking about, and you become intolerant.

Trump has learned how to function in a world in which people now live in very separate realities, where they get their news from Facebook recommendations and believe in a particular set of facts. Others, who live in a different reality, know quite a different set of facts.

For too many of us, it's become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or on college campuses, or places of worship or especially our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions. And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we start accepting only information, whether it's true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that is out there.

People want a reality that tells them they're right all of the time.