wish bias 

wish bias

PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL TRIALS

A popular term for a type of systemic error introduced into a clinical study by the tendency of patients¹, or investigators² to fit data or other information into a personal scheme of how they believe things ought to be.

¹E.g., by an obese patient to underreport foodconsumption ²E.g., to report only trials with positive findings or results that support a particular perspective

Reference J Clin Epidemiology 1990; 43:619–621