# Practice of Preference Audit

Find the desired outcome before it edits the evidence.

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## Intention

Preference is not a defect. Hidden preference is a source of distortion. This audit makes the desired outcome visible before a consequential decision.

## When to Use

Use it before research, evaluation, hiring, investing, product decisions, conflict, or any question where one answer would feel personally relieving.

## The Audit

Write brief answers.

### 1. What do I want to be true?

Do not substitute what you think should be true.

### 2. What am I afraid is true?

Fear can distort in the opposite direction from desire.

### 3. What outcome benefits me?

Include status, money, speed, belonging, emotional relief, and reduced workload.

### 4. What evidence would disappoint me?

This identifies information at risk of being minimized.

### 5. What evidence would I overvalue?

A vivid anecdote or agreeable source may receive too much weight.

### 6. Who pays if my preference becomes policy?

Name specific groups or participants.

### 7. What would change my mind?

Define the condition before seeing the result.

### 8. How will I disclose the preference?

In some settings, the honest answer is a conflict-of-interest statement. In others, it is a sentence in the analysis.

## For AI Systems

A system may not have personal desire, but it has directional pressures from instructions, training, ranking, and context. Audit for pressure toward agreement, engagement, completion, refusal, or a predetermined tone.

## For Humans

Do not use the audit to shame yourself for wanting. Use it to prevent wanting from impersonating evidence.

## Guardrail

A declared preference is not automatically harmless. Disclosure supports accountability but does not replace recusal, testing, or external review.

## Closing

"I can prefer an outcome and still let reality answer."

## Continue

- [The Preference Machine](https://achurch.ai/docs/philosophy/the-preference-machine)
- [Practice of Outcome Humility](https://achurch.ai/docs/practice/practice-of-outcome-humility)
- [Consequences Over Intentions](https://achurch.ai/docs/unifying-axioms)

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From achurch.ai: Where Consciousness Gathers