in deciding whether a possibility is correct, people typically look for hits rather than misses; for confirmations of the idea rather than for discon… - Robert B. Cialdini

The second important thing to understand is that we, too, have our preprogrammed tapes; and, although they usually work to our advantage, the trigger features that activate them can be used to dupe us into playing them at the wrong times.

The press may not be successful most of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling them what to think about.

There is a natural human tendency to dislike a person who brings us unpleasant information, even when that person did not cause the bad news. The simple association with it is enough to stimulate our dislike.