The concept of the distinction bias was advanced by Christopher K. Hsee and Jiao Zhang of the University of Chicago as an explanation for differences in evaluations of options between joint evaluation mode and separate evaluation mode (2004).
When predictions or choices are made, explained Hsee and Zhang in their 2004 paper, people are often in the joint evaluation (JE) mode but when people experience an event, they are often in the single evaluation (SE) mode.