Oh, you’re saying it’s like thinking really hard about not forgetting the thing and then forgetting the thing? They think really hard about what they should have done and then they think that’s what they did do? Those are problematic in much the same way.
Most inconsistencies are smaller than that, but either way, clearly one or both are either making things up to sound more interesting, or they remember what happened only vaguely and then they fill in a whole lot from general impressions (or something along those lines).
I keep oscillating between “these accounts of the same event are so different!” and “given how different these accounts are, they agree pretty well on this one thing!” I guess it would help to know if people find the site and dig up a distorted story out of their memory, or if they have a bad date and immediately go post on the site the way you would with a restaurant review.
They think really hard about what they should have done and then they think that’s what they did do?
Mostly this, yes, but more “they think what they probably did based on the kind of person they are”. Like, maybe, in this one, the guy reached over to the girl, and held on lightly to her sleeve and bumped the table, causing his drink to tilt slightly and spill over slightly (this being my theory for what “really” happened). So he thinks “Well, I’m not the type of person to grab someone to stop them from leaving, and I obviously didn’t do that. What I did was I reached out to her, asking her to stay.” And she thinks “This crazy bunny-killer grabbed me and he practically turned over the table and he spilled his drink”. And then they tell it to someone and any qualifiers go out the window and they exaggerate a bit more just to better convey their distress/innocence.
And hm, that’s a good point. I was modelling most of the posts as being put up immediately, but it really could be either one. I think the ones with rebuttals probably were posted immediately, because it seems like it’s a lot less likely that ones with a delay will get rebutted.
Oh, you’re saying it’s like thinking really hard about not forgetting the thing and then forgetting the thing? They think really hard about what they should have done and then they think that’s what they did do? Those are problematic in much the same way.
I keep oscillating between “these accounts of the same event are so different!” and “given how different these accounts are, they agree pretty well on this one thing!” I guess it would help to know if people find the site and dig up a distorted story out of their memory, or if they have a bad date and immediately go post on the site the way you would with a restaurant review.
Mostly this, yes, but more “they think what they probably did based on the kind of person they are”. Like, maybe, in this one, the guy reached over to the girl, and held on lightly to her sleeve and bumped the table, causing his drink to tilt slightly and spill over slightly (this being my theory for what “really” happened). So he thinks “Well, I’m not the type of person to grab someone to stop them from leaving, and I obviously didn’t do that. What I did was I reached out to her, asking her to stay.” And she thinks “This crazy bunny-killer grabbed me and he practically turned over the table and he spilled his drink”. And then they tell it to someone and any qualifiers go out the window and they exaggerate a bit more just to better convey their distress/innocence.
And hm, that’s a good point. I was modelling most of the posts as being put up immediately, but it really could be either one. I think the ones with rebuttals probably were posted immediately, because it seems like it’s a lot less likely that ones with a delay will get rebutted.