Motivated reasoning

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As Motivated Reasoning (after Ziva Kunda also Motivated Cognition ) the mutual influence of is motivation and cognition called. If a certain result is preferred (the motivation), the thought process is steered unnoticed in the desired direction. This happens through systematic errors in getting, constructing or evaluating information in the desired direction . The phenomenon is studied in cognitive science and social psychology .

According to Jason Reifler , psychology distinguishes two goals: the correct processing of information and the one to come to a specific result. There is a great deal of scientific evidence that motivated thinking is used in the consumption of political information so that the worldview does not waver. The information is searched for and processed which corresponds to the existing worldview . Effects such as the confirmation bias (confirmation bias) lead to unconscious information is considered relevant, confirming their own view.

This effect can also be confirmed in perceptual psychology. There it could be proven that indications of controllable dangers bind the attention of the human being, whereas indications that announce uncontrollable dangers tend to be suppressed in the perception process. The perception threshold for corresponding information is raised or lowered, depending on the individually assessed possibility of being able to influence the situation.

Motivated thinking as a "tendency to find arguments that favor the conclusion we want to believe in instead of finding arguments for the conclusion that we don't want to believe". can lead to the emergence and retention of false assumptions despite substantial counter-evidence. The preferred result acts like a filter that influences the evaluation of scientific evidence as well as other people.

literature

  • E. Balcetis, D. Dunning: See what you want to see: Motivational influences on visual perception. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 91, 2006, pp. 612-625

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Z. Kunda: The case for motivated reasoning . In: Psychological Bulletin . 108, No. 3, 1990, pp. 480-498. doi : 10.1037 / 0033-2909.108.3.480 . PMID 2270237 .
  2. ↑ S. Weber and E. Knorr: Cognitive distortions and the irrationality of thinking. in: Markus Appel (ed.): The psychology of the post-factual. Springer 2019 p. 104 ff.
  3. ↑ quoted from: Ingrid Brodnig: Lügen im Netz. Updated new edition: How fake news, populists and uncontrolled technology manipulate us Christian Brandstätter Verlag, 2018
  4. ↑ A. Voss: Motivated Perception: Selective attention and relieving reinterpretations when absorbing valuable information (Motivated Perception: Selective Attention and palliative reinterpretation in the perception of affective information). Dissertation. University of Trier, 2004. as full text pdf These are test arrangements in which test subjects are presented with different color fields by means of a computer, which are assigned the meaning of a hazard stimulus or have a neutral or manageable definition.
  5. ↑ O'Leary, Ann. "Teaching Tip Sheet: Motivated Reasoning," American Psychological Association (APA); citing HC Sternlicht: The range of periodontal therapy - past and present . In: Texas Dental Journal . 95, No. 10, 1977, pp. 6-13. PMID 270237 .