Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions.

1992/10/01 by Peter H. Ditto, David F. Lopez · 13 citations
Decision Sciences · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Cognitive psychology #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Differential (mechanical device) #Epistemology #Psychology #Skepticism #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology

paper · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.63.4.568

openalex publication_date 1992/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Three experiments show that information consistent with a preferred conclusion is examined less critically than information inconsistent with a preferred conclusion, and consequently, less information is required to reach the former than the latter. In Study 1, Ss judged which of 2 students was most intelligent, believing they would work closely with the 1 they chose. Ss required less information to decide that a dislikable student was less intelligent than that he was more intelligent. In Studies 2 and 3, Ss given an unfavorable medical test result took longer to decide their test result was complete, were more likely to retest the validity of their result, cited more life irregularities that might have affected test accuracy, and rated test accuracy as lower than did Ss receiving more favorable diagnoses. Results suggest that a core component of self-serving bias is the differential quantity of cognitive processing given to preference-consistent and preference-inconsistent infor

Citations

• Accountability: A Social Check on the Fundamental Attribution Error
• Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions.
• The case for motivated reasoning.

Cited by

• Physically Attractive Social Information Sources Lead to Increased Selective Exposure to Information
• Motivated Reasoning and Performance on the was on Selection Task
• See what you want to see: Motivational influences on visual perception.
• The influence of outcome desirability on optimism.
• Wishful Thinking
• Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through derogating others.
• The Impact of Vulnerability to and Severity of a Health Risk on Processing and Acceptance of Fear-Arousing Communications: A Meta-Analysis
• How chronic self-views influence (and potentially mislead) estimates of performance.
• (Anti-)egalitarianism differentially predicts empathy for members of advantaged versus disadvantaged groups.
• Ideology selectively shapes attention to inequality
• Hierarchy in the eye of the beholder: (Anti-)egalitarianism shapes perceived levels of social inequality.
• Right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation differentially predict biased evaluations of media reports
• Confirmation bias [wikipedia]