As for why the Bunun believe that different owl hoots are a reliable way of judging the sex of unborn children, in Huang's view: "As with all myths and legends, the inaccurate instances are forgotten. In psychology, this is called selective memory." Thus only the stories in which the prediction comes true are passed down.
至於布農族人認為貓頭鷹叫聲可以辨別嬰兒性別，且相當靈驗，在他看來「所有神話傳說都一樣，不准的就忘掉，在心理學上稱為結構性遺忘」，所以只有靈驗的故事流傳下來。