However, this kind of bias may be instrumentally useful:
I agree, but I think there is another bias at work -- not understanding one's own motivations. In this case, Zohar doesn't seem to understand why exactly he wants to be inducted so badly. People have a tendency to choose the most flattering explanations for their own actions and desires and believe them. Or at least to avoid thinking about the unflattering but likely true motivations.
(In this case, I suspect what's really going on is that Zohar is worried that he has serious mental problems and the IDF is basically the bearer of bad news. )
Anyway, in life it is often useful to conceal your true motivations from other people. Not only that, there are times it might be helpful to conceal your true motivations from yourself.
In this case, Zohar doesn't seem to understand why exactly he wants to be inducted so badly.
I don't think that's the case. It's rather that he's reluctant to publically state them on LW.
So I've been rejected for conscription in the IDF because the psychiatrist thinks the Asperger's diagnosis I received as a child means that there is something wrong with me. Never mind that I've been examined very recently and been recommended for enlistment, he thinks that even though I probably don't have Asperger's, there must be something wrong with me because in the past I've had trouble socially. Of course I have no such problems now, but it's not as if he's going to risk his job in the face of anything less than perfection.
(This, btw, is what I meant when I said there was no such thing as a competent mental health professional- the entire system works against evidence-based methods.)
There has to be something wrong with this, some way that I can appeal. I have no idea of the Israeli legal process and I'm not sure if I could just write a letter to someone, or if I might need a lawyer. I can definitely prove that there is nothing psychologically wrong with me. I just have no idea where to turn, no idea how to do anything, and have no allies whatsoever. I feel like my life is collapsing, and I do have very good reasons personally for wanting to join the army. It's not just something I felt like doing.
This community obviously has better things to do than this sort of thing. But I feel like I'm going to explode if I can't talk to anyone, or get some idea of what I can do. I feel almost as if I'm becoming mentally ill.