Faith Quote by Thomas Gilovich
““Consider the common belief among some segments of the population that “the only way to get anywhere with the opposite sex is to come on strong.” Someone who holds such a belief will consistently come on strong and, at some point, will succeed in meeting his or her objective. The occasional success, however rare, will then be attributed to the choice of tactics, and its effectiveness will seem to be an unassailable fact of the person’s own experience. Because no single failure serves to disconfirm the strategy’s effectiveness (after all, nothing works all the time), the only way it can be shown to be ineffective is by discovering that the rate of success is lower with this strategy than with others. Given that alternative techniques are rarely if ever employed, the person is in no danger of having his or her favorite theories disabused.””
About This Quote
Source Book: Heuristics and Biases in Social Judgment, Thomas Gilovich, 1995
People often overvalue a single successful experience and ignore many failures, reinforcing ineffective tactics as if they were proven.
In simple terms: Successes are remembered, failures ignored, leading to false confidence in a strategy.
Key Takeaway
Test multiple approaches and track overall success rates.
Themes
cognition
bias
decisionmaking
relationships
confidence
Mood
skeptical
analytical
reflective
Type
advisory
analytical
reflective
When to use this quote
- dating
- sales negotiations
- team leadership
- marketing campaigns
Key Concepts
confirmation bias
availability heuristic
self‑serving bias
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you evaluate the true success rate of a tactic?
- What alternative strategies could you try?
A Different Perspective
Effectiveness may vary across contexts; single successes can be misleading.
