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Unnamed comments on New study on choice blindness in moral positions - Less Wrong
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I have to wonder if many of the respondents in the survey didn't hold any position with much strength in the first place. Our society enforces the belief, not only that everyone is entitled to their opinions, but that everyone should have an opinion on just about any issue. People tend to stand by "opinions" that are really just snap judgments, which may be largely arbitrary.
If the respondents had little basis for determining their responses in the first place, it's unsurprising if they don't notice when they've been changed, and that it doesn't affect their ability to argue for them.
There is a long tradition in social science research, going back at least to Converse (1964), holding that most people's political views are relatively incoherent, poorly thought-through, and unstable. They're just making up responses to survey questions on the spot, in a way that can involve a lot of randomness.
This study demonstrates that plus confabulation, in a way that is particularly compelling because of the short time scale involved and the experimental manipulation of what opinion the person was defending.