Breaking the mold: examining the effectiveness of techniques to reduce motivated reasoning

ABSTRACT

Extensive research in the social sciences has shown that people tend to engage in motivated reasoning when processing information. However, one area of inquiry that has been lacking is examining the effectiveness of different strategies that aim to decrease motivated reasoning. In this paper, we examine three strategies that have been shown to decrease motivated reasoning: accuracy motivation, the common ingroup identity model, and self-affirmation. We begin by replicating previous findings examining the effectiveness of each of these strategies in reducing motivated reasoning. We then extend this line of inquiry by comparing the effects of these three strategies against one another to determine if one of them is more effective at reducing motivated reasoning. To test our hypotheses, we used an experimental design and recruited participants from Prolific.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

The pilot test study described in this paper was approved as exempt by the University of Florida Institutional Review Board (IRB202003146). The primary study in this paper was also approved as exempt by the same body (IRB202002222).

Data availability statement

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author ([email protected]).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the research has been provided by the University of Florida’s Center for Undergraduate Research under the University Scholars Program stipend