Motivated sensitivity to preference-inconsistent information.

1998/07/01 by Peter H. Ditto, James A. Scepansky, Geoffrey D. Munro +2 · 2 citations
Decision Sciences · Medicine · Psychology · #Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Preference #Psychology #Social psychology #Statistics

paper · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.53

openalex publication_date 1998/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

If preference-inconsistent information initiates more effortful cognitive analysis than does preference-consistent information, then people should be more sensitive processors of information they do not want to believe than of information they do want to believe. Three studies supported this prediction. Study 1 found that inferences drawn from favorable interpersonal feedback revealed a correspondence bias, whereas inferences drawn from unfavorable feedback were sensitive to situational constraint. Study 2 showed this sensitivity to the quality of unfavorable feedback to disappear under cognitive load. Study 3 showed that evaluations of the accuracy of favorable medical diagnoses were insensitive to the probability of alternative explanation, whereas evaluations of unfavorable diagnoses were sensitive to probability information. The importance of adaptive considerations in theories of motivated reasoning is discussed.

Citations

• Toward an Integration of Cognitive and Motivational Perspectives on Social Inference: A Biased Hypothesis-Testing Model
• The correspondence bias.
• Accountability: A Social Check on the Fundamental Attribution Error
• Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading
• The Optimal Margin of Illusion
• A new look at motivated inference: Are self-serving theories of success a product of motivational forces?
• Motivated inference: Self-serving generation and evaluation of causal theories.
• Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions.
• Effects of mindset on positive illusions.
• The case for motivated reasoning.
• Positive Illusions and Coping with Adversity
• Human agency in social cognitive theory.
• Downward comparison principles in social psychology.
• Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health.
• Recent Research on Selective Exposure to Information

Cited by

• Spontaneous Skepticism: The Interplay of Motivation and Expectation in Responses to Favorable and Unfavorable Medical Diagnoses
• Self-enhancement [wikipedia]