Citation

Čavojová V, Šrol J, Adamus M. J. Cogn. Psychol. (Hove) 2018; 30(7): 656-669.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/20445911.2018.1518961

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The study explores whether people are more inclined to accept a conclusion that confirms their prior beliefs and reject one they personally object to even when both follow the same logic. Most of the prior research in this area has relied on the informal reasoning paradigm; in this study, however, we applied a formal reasoning paradigm to distinguish between cognitive and motivational mechanisms leading to myside bias in reasoning on value-laden topics (in this case abortions). Slovak and Polish (N = 387) participants indicated their attitudes toward abortion and then evaluated logical syllogisms with neutral, pro-choice, or pro-life content. We analysed whether participants' prior attitudes influenced their ability to solve these logically identical reasoning tasks and found that prior attitudes were the strongest predictor of myside bias in evaluating both valid and invalid syllogisms, even after controlling for logical validity (the ability to solve neutral syllogisms) and previous experience of logic.

Language: en

Keywords

belief bias; formal reasoning; motivated reasoning; Myside bias