"You see these large differences in miles per gallon that don't make much difference, " says Mr. Larrick.

WSJ: Why Your Mileage May Not Measure Up

Rick Larrick, a professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, says consumers would be better served if the government and auto makers simply junked the miles-per-gallon measurement altogether.

WSJ: Why Your Mileage May Not Measure Up

Some support for this approach of first establishing a belief and then challenging it can be found in a recently conducted experiment performed by Jack Soll and Rick Larrick.

FORBES: Meeting the Big Data challenge: DON'T be objective