I2 1E Motivated Reasoning_compressed.pdf - Vinil Mokhade

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