Do you know why you did that?
Richard Nisbett & Timothy Wilson · Telling More Than We Can Know · 1977
A · Replicated at scale
In a series of experiments, people confidently reported causes of their own judgments that could not have been operative — they confabulated, and did not notice. Verbal reports on higher mental processes are unreliable as causal accounts, though they remain useful as reports of the experience itself.
ProbeRecall a recent strong preference. Write the reason. Then write one reason that would also explain it and that you cannot rule out.