1st Edition: Issue 2 December 2021 SCIENTIFIC TEMPERAMENT SCIENTIFICAE Motivated Motivated Reasoning (MR) Reasoning (MR) Wondered why you couldn't win your last political argument? The answer lies here: Perhaps you or the other person have twisted the logic, cherry-picked and distorted facts, or been biased. No worries, after reading this pamphlet, you'll get an overview of the other person's mindset during the argument. Just keep in mind that this may apply to you too. New to this issue Scimedy™ Scimedy™ The Science Comedy Further Reading Further Reading Further Reading reading for life Scimedy™ Scimedy™ The Science Comedy Motivated Reasoning in real life Science behind Motivated Reasoning Cognitive Dissonance Solutions to conquer MR and CD problems Challenge your mind Answers to questions of previous issue Further Reading Conclusion Table of Contents You must've got annoyed while defending allegations against your political leader. At some point, you even twisted facts and cherry-picked some instances telling your leader is not the culprit. You may have got emotionally hurt during such a situation. If someone told you, "Abraham Lincoln created the Secret Service hours before his assassination * ," you'd probably believe him if you're unaware of Lincoln's history. But if someone says, "Your political leader is utterly corrupt!" then it'll shake your sense of identity. Maybe you'll discard those claims as fake news. In intense situations, you may get into a brawl. But Why? Why don't we follow reason and believe that the leader may be corrupt? It's because our emotional investment in these beliefs restraints our reasoning. These beliefs may be our sense of identity or sacred cows, as it's commonly called. Ex. An experiment conducted during the 2020 Bihar elections aimed at helping people identify misinformation. People who had a solid partisan identity got worse at identifying fake news afterward. Later, these people blamed the experimenters for increasing their confusion. The study found that people's strong sympathy towards the party motivated them to double down against whatever the experimenters explained about fake news (quoting their party) as false. That is called "the backfire effect."* M R I N R E A L L I F E *https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-abraham-lincoln *https://scroll.in/article/996089/interview-sumitra-badrinathan-on-tackling-fake- news-and-the-effects-of-bjps-supply-advantage 1 LIMBIC SYSTEM: THE EMOTIONAL PART OF BRAIN THE BRAIN-FRONTAL LOBE: COGNITIVE PART OF BRAIN Accuracy Goal– it leads them to try to make their opinion as correct as possible. Accuracy goals arise in situations where individuals are motivated to provide accurate responses (e.g., a situation in which they will later have to justify their choices to others). This type of motivation tends to evoke more elaborate and careful reasoning * Ex. You vote for a candidate whose views on important issues match with those of the public. Difference between Directional and Accuracy Goal? Accuracy goals lead to the use of those beliefs and strategies that are considered most appropriate, whereas directional goals lead to the use of those that are considered most likely to yield the desired conclusion. * It was found that people with a more partisan identity had increased directional reasoning. Moreover, they weighed the evidence favoring them more heavily and outrightly dismissed contradictory facts. Perhaps, this explains why your opponent in the argument was so adamant. He must have dismissed your evidence straight away because it conflicted with his preconceptions. contradictory political facts and opinions –the part of the brain associated with emotion and identity are activated. Neutral information –the rational and cognitive area of the brain lits up. Although researchers have extensively studied the brain's activity during motivated reasoning, they haven't concluded about the interactions between different parts of the brain. Nevertheless, researchers posit that when people face ideas including: Much of psychological research on motivated reasoning entails political opinion. Experts found that people pursue two goals to form opinions, which contributes to their motivated reasoning: S C I E N C E B E H I N D M R *The Skeptics guide to the Universe by Steven Novella. Pg 53 Line 5-10 *http://www2.psych.utoronto.ca/users/peterson/psy430s2001/Kunda %20Z%20Motivated%20Reasoning%20Psych%20Bull%201990.pdf Directional Goal– it leads people to the opinion that is consistent with their partisan identity. * Ex. Your favored political party introduces a bill and asks for public opinion. Meanwhile, you ask yourself, "Is the bill good?" instead of "Is the bill bad?". D I R E C T I O N A L G O A L V S A C C U R A C Y G O A L 2 Illustrating this: Consider you're planning to vaccinate yourself against Covid-19. But you're worried because your friend suffered severely after taking the vaccine. Fake news regarding the harmful effects of the vaccine furthers your worries. On one side, there is Science claiming the effectiveness of vaccines without harmful effects. On the other are fake news and your friend's situation telling the dangerous effects post-vaccination. Now, you're in a dilemma. In the past, you've taken several vaccines and suffered no problems then. But now, your core belief on vaccine safety is challenged by some people. Thus, you're extremely confused about holding two contrasting views; more specifically, you're experiencing Cognitive Dissonance. Hopefully, Cognitive Dissonance triggers your Motivated Reasoning and compels you to conclude that vaccines are safe and effective. In this case, your strong belief about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines correctly led your way out of cognitive dissonance. But in other situations such as if the vaccine is really not safe, it may lead you to an incorrect decision of taking the vaccine in the this case. The term cognitive dissonance describes the mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes * Ideally, we should resolve the conflicting beliefs rationally. But when the belief is at the core of our identity or worldview, then we tend to act emotionally and try to defend our stand. From the previous example, it'll be hard for us to accept that our beloved leader is corrupt. Changing that view might cause a chain reaction and may lead us to a state of extreme confusion about our leader's character and actions. C O G N I T I V E D I S S O N A N C E ( C D ) *https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cognitive-dissonance-2795012 AAH! I FEEL AWFUL AFTER VACCINATION YES! NO! SHOULD I VACCINATE?? YEAH! I'M VACCINATING HERE YOU GO! 3 Skeptic Mind Rigid Mind THINK FROM ME S O L U T I O N S T O C O N Q U E R M R A N D C D P R O B L E M S At first, you've to make a specific effort to be more detached when it comes to ideological beliefs. * Factual beliefs about the world shouldn't be a source of identity because those facts may be wrong, partly wrong, or incomplete. * Try to focus on the validity of the process, not on any particular claim or set of beliefs. * Addressing MR issues by leaders: https://bit.ly/3jUUcsa Always be more rational and realistic when dealing with facts opposing your claims. Try to follow accuracy reasoning than directional reasoning. Whenever you find yourself in controversy, you must always keep in mind that the other person is not a demon. He doesn't contradict you because you're good, and he's terrible. It's just that he has different narratives than we do, one augmented by a different set of facts and subjective judgment. * So, we must respect the other person’s opinions. *The Skeptics guide to the Universe by Steven Novella. Pg 56 Line 6-26 At times, you may succumb to MR and CD. You may even feel guilty after taking a wrong judgment or supporting a false fact due to MR and CD. Therefore you must remember, "Consistent practice of skeptically taking judgements leads one to excellence." Factual Accuracy Reasoning Validity of Process 4 What more solutions can you think of MR and CD problems? (Provide four responses) Suggest types of beliefs apart from facts which shouldn't be a source of your identity. (Free response) In what context is a Directional goal is more beneficial than Accuracy Goal? (Free Response) Challenge your mind The James Webb Space Telescope will help in unravelling the mystery behind the birth of our universe. Imagine if it finds out how the universe came into being. Now if this finding contradicts what religions say about the creation of our universe then how would you react? Outrightly dismiss the finding Critically think about the finding and religious belief Discard the religious belief No stance on this issue Answers in the next issue More than one answer May be correct 5 SOLUTIONS TO QUESTIONS OF PREVIOUS ISSUE How can you evaluate scientific temperment? (Provide four responses) Note: answers may vary What do you think are the hurdles in developing a Scientific Temper? (Free response) In the 21st century which mindsets, apart from Scientific Temper, do you think are required? (Free Response) Apart from the 4 pillars of a knowledge society, which of the following can be considered a 5th one: By checking how many times you take a decision rationally than emotionally. By examining your thought process when attempting to solve a controversial problem By seeing how many of your preconceived believed have changed after becoming rational. No hinderance in knowledge sharing This is the best answer because the liberty of information exchange is the key to a knowledge society. Although universal access to the internet is a tool for spreading knowledge, it cannot be yielded unless there is free dissemination of knowledge. Decentralization may seem like a tempting answer, but it merely cannot guarantee the unhindered spread of knowledge. Free markets are irrelevant in this context. By looking which thoughts come to your mind after your read an article on a controversial issue. Growth Mindset Solution-oriented Mindset Gratitude Mindset Creative Mindset Confident Mindset ( No Overconfidence! ) Productive Mindset Our preconceived belifs will resist us in changing our worldview. Certain religious views will hinder us from seeing beyond the boundaries. If we're passively perceiving everything in this pamphlet, then this poses a barrier too. 6 Universal Access to Internet High degree of Decentralisation of Governmental Power Free Markets No hinderance in knowledge sharing Answer choices for previous question The Magic of Reality The Demon-Haunted World The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe In this age of real and fake information, your ability to reason, to think in scientifically skeptical fashion, is the most important skill you can have. Read The Skpetics' Guide to the Universe; get better at reasoning. And if this claim about the importance of reason is wrong, The Skeptics' Guide will help you figure that out, too. Bill Nye, The Science Guy Further Reading Further Reading Further Reading HTTPS://AMZN.TO/3KAAPCU HTTPS://AMZN.TO/3C8ZX4N HTTPS://AMZN.TO/3FBBUIA A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference...A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity. The Sciences Starting with the magical, mythical explanations for the wonders of nature, Dawkins reveals the exhilarating scientific truths behind these occurrences. This is a page-turning detective story that not only mines all the sciences for its clues but primes the reader to think like a scientist as well. Simon and Schuster 7 reading for life Bolstering Individuals for Humility and Scientific Skepticism Visit our website below for more details. https://bit.ly/2YnR1R1 or Scan the QR code below NEXT ISSUE In a nutshell, motivated reasoning is another term for biased reasoning. Cognitive Dissonance is another term for mental discomfort resulting from holding contradicting opinions. We must avoid biases as far as possible. However, biases cannot be termed as good or bad. In some cases, having biases is profitable, as explained on page 3 in the vaccine example. Nevertheless, being skeptical and critical is the key to effectively addressing challenges(and winning an argument!). Remember that people who oppose our views are not demons, and we're not angels! It's just that each of us has a different narrative supported by a different set of facts. So, be rational, be skeptical, be open- minded and, be humble. CONCLUSION 8