Tag: motivated reasoning

Motivated reasoning is the mental process that include mechanisms for accessing, construcing, and evaluating beliefs in response to new information or experiences. The motivation may be to arrive at accurate beliefs, or to arrive at desired conclusions. While more likely to arrive at conclusions they want, for most people such desires are constrained by the ability to construct a reasonable justification.

Motivated reasoning may involve personal choices, such as continuing to smoke after encountering evidence of the health effects of tobacco, leading to personal justifications for doing so.

Strongly held beliefs are associated with deeply held values and identities. Political reasoning involves the goal of identity protection; maintaining status within an affinity group united by shared values.

Current research in motivated reasoning has been effected by technological change, both in the methods used by researchers and in the behavior being studied. Researchers employ the methodology of neuroscience to provide data on brain functioning, rather than relying solely upon self-reports or observations of behavior.

Much of the information used by people in forming beliefs now comes from broadcast or social media, which may support a biased viewpoint, including conspiracy theories. To attract an audience, news media favor content that stimulate negative emotions, favoring news stories that threaten the beliefs or social identity of viewers.