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Simon D, Read SJ. Toward a General Framework of Biased Reasoning: Coherence-Based Reasoning. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2023:17456916231204579. [PMID: 37983541 DOI: 10.1177/17456916231204579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2023]
Abstract
A considerable amount of experimental research has been devoted to uncovering biased forms of reasoning. Notwithstanding the richness and overall empirical soundness of the bias research, the field can be described as disjointed, incomplete, and undertheorized. In this article, we seek to address this disconnect by offering "coherence-based reasoning" as a parsimonious theoretical framework that explains a sizable number of important deviations from normative forms of reasoning. Represented in connectionist networks and processed through constraint-satisfaction processing, coherence-based reasoning serves as a ubiquitous, essential, and overwhelmingly adaptive apparatus in people's mental toolbox. This adaptive process, however, can readily be overrun by bias when the network is dominated by nodes or links that are incorrect, overweighted, or otherwise nonnormative. We apply this framework to explain a variety of well-established biased forms of reasoning, including confirmation bias, the halo effect, stereotype spillovers, hindsight bias, motivated reasoning, emotion-driven reasoning, ideological reasoning, and more.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Simon
- Gould School of Law, University of Southern California
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California
| | - Stephen J Read
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California
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Bernhard RM, Frankland SM, Plunkett D, Sievers B, Greene JD. Evidence for Spinozan "Unbelieving" in the Right Inferior Prefrontal Cortex. J Cogn Neurosci 2023; 35:659-680. [PMID: 36638227 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Humans can think about possible states of the world without believing in them, an important capacity for high-level cognition. Here, we use fMRI and a novel "shell game" task to test two competing theories about the nature of belief and its neural basis. According to the Cartesian theory, information is first understood, then assessed for veracity, and ultimately encoded as either believed or not believed. According to the Spinozan theory, comprehension entails belief by default, such that understanding without believing requires an additional process of "unbelieving." Participants (n = 70) were experimentally induced to have beliefs, desires, or mere thoughts about hidden states of the shell game (e.g., believing that the dog is hidden in the upper right corner). That is, participants were induced to have specific "propositional attitudes" toward specific "propositions" in a controlled way. Consistent with the Spinozan theory, we found that thinking about a proposition without believing it is associated with increased activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus. This was true whether the hidden state was desired by the participant (because of reward) or merely thought about. These findings are consistent with a version of the Spinozan theory whereby unbelieving is an inhibitory control process. We consider potential implications of these results for the phenomena of delusional belief and wishful thinking.
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Rose JP, Aspiras O. “To hope was to expect”: The impact of perspective taking and forecast type on wishful thinking. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/bdm.2170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jason P. Rose
- Department of Psychology University of Toledo Toledo OH
| | - Olivia Aspiras
- Department of Health, Wellness & Behavioral Sciences Clarke University Dubuque IA
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Curley LJ, MacLean R, Murray J, Pollock AC, Laybourn P. Threshold point utilisation in juror decision-making. PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOLOGY, AND LAW : AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION OF PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOLOGY AND LAW 2018; 26:110-128. [PMID: 31984068 PMCID: PMC6762123 DOI: 10.1080/13218719.2018.1485520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
This study aims to identify whether a model of juror decision-making (i.e. the threshold point model) that encompasses both rational and intuitive decision-making exists. A total of 60 participants were selected who are eligible for jury duty in Scotland. These individuals read nine vignettes and rated the evidence of each vignette separately by placing the evidence in either a guilty, a not guilty or a not proven (a verdict type specific to Scotland) counter. Participants were asked after being presented with each piece of information to state how likely they thought the suspect was of being guilty, on a scale from 1 to 100. The data are best described using a flexible model (i.e. a diffusion model) that allows for information integration. Future research should examine whether or not the diffusion model can explain cognitive fallacies, such as confirmation bias, that are commonly studied in decision science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lee J. Curley
- School of Applied Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland
| | - Rory MacLean
- School of Applied Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland
| | - Jennifer Murray
- School of Applied Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland
| | | | - Phyllis Laybourn
- School of Applied Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland
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Forecasting tournaments, epistemic humility and attitude depolarization. Cognition 2018; 188:19-26. [PMID: 30389145 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.10.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2018] [Revised: 10/22/2018] [Accepted: 10/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
People often express political opinions in starkly dichotomous terms, such as "Trump will either trigger a ruinous trade war or save U.S. factory workers from disaster." This mode of communication promotes polarization into ideological in-groups and out-groups. We explore the power of an emerging methodology, forecasting tournaments, to encourage clashing factions to do something odd: to translate their beliefs into nuanced probability judgments and track accuracy over time and questions. In theory, tournaments advance the goals of "deliberative democracy" by incentivizing people to be flexible belief updaters whose views converge in response to facts, thus depolarizing unnecessarily polarized debates. We examine the hypothesis that, in the process of thinking critically about their beliefs, tournament participants become more moderate in their own political attitudes and those they attribute to the other side. We view tournaments as belonging to a broader class of psychological inductions that increase epistemic humility and that include asking people to explore alternative perspectives, probing the depth of their cause-effect understanding and holding them accountable to audiences with difficult-to-guess views.
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Adams JM, Hart W, Richardson K, Tortoriello GK, Rentschler A. Monkey see, monkey do: The effect of social influence on selective-exposure bias. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Will Hart
- Psychology; University of Alabama; Tuscaloosa Alabama USA
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Not by desire alone: The role of cognitive consistency in the desirability bias. JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING 2016. [DOI: 10.1017/s1930297500004551] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
AbstractWe demonstrate that the desirability bias, the elevation of the estimated likelihood of a preferred event, can be due in part to the desire for consistency between the preference for the favored event and its predicted likelihood. An experiment uses a participant’s favorite team in Major League Baseball games and a recently devised method for priming the consistency goal. When preference is the first response, priming cognitive consistency moves prediction toward greater agreement with that preference, thereby increasing the desirability bias. In contrast, when prediction is the first response, priming cognitive consistency facilitates greater agreement with the factual information for each game. This increases the accuracy of the prediction and reduces the desirability bias.
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Abstract
Abstract. This paper investigates the specific self-presentational situations in which people confirm or negate their comparative optimism in order to convey a favorable self-image. One pilot study and three experiments showed that people increase their comparative optimism to convey an image of competence, but not one of warmth (Pilot Study, Study 1), as well as to present an advantageous self-image in professional situations, although not in friendship situations (Studies 2–3). These effects occur in self-presentation situations involving both low (Studies 1–2) and high (Study 3) levels of accountability. Additional findings indicate that the presentation of a risk-taking self-image is unrelated to comparative optimism, whereas the presentation of a modest self-image leads people to decrease their comparative optimism estimates (Study 3). Results are discussed in the light of the underlying self-presentational motivations in specific situations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Isabelle Milhabet
- Department of Psychology, Université de Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France
| | - Clémentine Bry
- Department of Psychology, Université de Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France
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The Argumentative Theory: Predictions and Empirical Evidence. Trends Cogn Sci 2016; 20:689-700. [PMID: 27450708 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2016] [Revised: 06/30/2016] [Accepted: 07/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The argumentative theory of reasoning suggests that the main function of reasoning is to exchange arguments with others. This theory explains key properties of reasoning. When reasoners produce arguments, they are biased and lazy, as can be expected if reasoning is a mechanism that aims at convincing others in interactive contexts. By contrast, reasoners are more objective and demanding when they evaluate arguments provided by others. This fundamental asymmetry between production and evaluation explains the effects of reasoning in different contexts: the more debate and conflict between opinions there is, the more argument evaluation prevails over argument production, resulting in better outcomes. Here I review how the argumentative theory of reasoning helps integrate a wide range of empirical findings in reasoning research.
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Derous E, Buijsrogge A, Roulin N, Duyck W. Why your stigma isn't hired: A dual-process framework of interview bias. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT REVIEW 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.09.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Stuart JOR, Windschitl PD, Smith AR, Scherer AM. Behaving Optimistically: How the (Un)Desirability of an Outcome Can Bias People's Preparations for It. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING 2015. [DOI: 10.1002/bdm.1918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Aaron M. Scherer
- Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine University of Michigan USA
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Scherer AM, Taber-Thomas BC, Tranel D. A neuropsychological investigation of decisional certainty. Neuropsychologia 2015; 70:206-13. [PMID: 25725416 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.02.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2014] [Revised: 02/10/2015] [Accepted: 02/25/2015] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
The certainty that one feels following a decision increases decision-making efficiency, but can also result in decreased decision accuracy. In the current study, a neuropsychological approach was used to examine the impact of damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) on core psychological processes promoting decision certainty: selective exposure, overconfidence, and decisiveness. Given previous research demonstrating that vmPFC damage disrupts the generation of negative emotional (somatic) states that have been associated with selective exposure and overconfidence, it was hypothesized that damage to the vmPFC would disrupt engagement in selective exposure, decrease overconfidence, and increase indecision. Individuals with vmPFC damage exhibited increased indecision, but contrary to our hypothesis, engaged in similar levels of selective exposure and overconfidence as the comparison groups. These results indicate that indecision may be an important psychological mechanism involved in decision-making impairments associated with vmPFC injury. The results also suggest that the vmPFC may not be critical for selective exposure or overconfidence, which provides support for a recent "desirability" account of selective exposure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron M Scherer
- Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
| | - Bradley C Taber-Thomas
- Department of Psychology, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA; Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Daniel Tranel
- Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA; Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
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