The Grilled Cheese

As you can see, the app succeeded in recognizing that there was some variation in my movements throughout the night. And it works. Each morning I have awoken pleasantly, which is not my norm (as my parents know from trying to get me out the door to school).

Or does it? I can't help but wonder if I'm waking up well because I expect to wake up well. In other words, is it simply a placebo effect? I've thought a bit about this, and I've come to a pretty confident answer: no. It is not a placebo because it works even now when I'm doubting its efficacy. 

But my doubt isn't out of the Negative Nancy Woods just yet. I could be waking up well because I want the app to work. I have a vested interest in the app working. Namely, I don't want to look like a fool for paying 99 cents for something that doesn't work. I'm not sure what this bias might be called, but it seems to be related to cognitive dissonance, demand characteristics in psychological research, and most closely to choice-supporting bias. It's not quite the latter because I'm not ascribing positive attributes to the app, I'm actually feeling the results of those positive attributes. Does somebody have a name for this?

Of course, I may very well be over-thinking this one, so lets try something. I'll buy the app for the first 5 people who ask me*, as long as they promise to test it out and tell me what they've found.

*You must have an iPhone to get into this cool club.