It doesn't have to be as extreme as that. If I think I did poorly on an interview, I will probably stop following up with the company and will more aggressivel

It doesn't have to be as extreme as that. If I think I did poorly on an interview, I will probably stop following up with the company and will more aggressively pursue other options. In particular, I might accept another offer prematurely because I assume one isn't forthcoming from the company. As the post mentions, this relates heavily to timing. It's the long delays which many companies introduce that force candidates to make assumptions/prune early, especially since some companies will never even tell you you were rejected. Speeding up candidate responses is one of the easiest ways to dramatically improve a hiring process.