““Nevertheless, it is also clear that people sometimes perform this task rather poorly by being too inclined to ask questions for which a positive response would confirm the hypothesis.9 When trying to determine if a person is an extrovert, for example, people prefer to ask about the ways in which the target person is outgoing; when trying to determine if a person is an introvert, people are more inclined to ask about the ways in which the target is socially inert. Although a tendency to ask such one-sided questions does not guarantee that the hypothesis will be confirmed, it can produce an erroneous sense of confirmation for a couple of reasons. First, the specific questions asked can sometimes be so constraining that only information consistent with the hypothesis is likely to be elicited. For example, in one widely-cited study,10 one of the questions that the participants were fond of asking when trying to determine if a person was an extrovert was: “What would you do if you wanted to liven things up at a party?” A question such as this one is clearly biased against disconfirmation: Even the most inner-directed individual has been to a party or two and can at least discuss how to liven one up if explicitly asked to do so. By asking such constraining questions, it is difficult for anyone, including introverts, not to sound extroverted.””
