Reducing Group Alignment in Factual Disputes? The Limited Effects of Social Identity Interventions

Lyons, Benjamin A.

doi:10.1177/1075547018804826

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…While numerous studies have focused on identifying sources of directional motivated reasoning, evidence for a causal role of directional motivated reasoning in holding on to misperceptions in the face of corrective information is to date limited. Previous research identified prior beliefs as a general source of directional motivated reasoning (e.g., Lord et al, 1979; Taber & Lodge, 2006), as well as more specific sources such as partisanship (Bolsen et al, 2014; Gaines et al, 2007; McCright & Dunlap, 2011) and related sources such as identity protection (Kahan et al, 2017; Lyons, 2018), conspiracy ideation and worldviews (Lewandowsky et al, 2013), and solution aversion (Campbell & Kay, 2014). Research on the causal effect of directional motivated reasoning in sticking to misperceptions, however, is difficult because one cannot easily manipulate an individual’s political ideology or worldview.…”

Section: Motivated Reasoningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correcting Misperceptions: The Causal Role of Motivation in Corrective Science Communication About Vaccine and Food Safety

Stekelenburg

Schaap

Veling

et al. 2020

Science Communication

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Some people stick to beliefs that do not align with scientific consensus when faced with science communication that contradicts those misperceptions. Two preregistered experiments (total N = 1,256) investigated the causal role of motivated reasoning in the effectiveness of correcting misperceptions. In both experiments, accuracy-driven reasoning led to a larger corrective effect of a science communication message than reasoning driven by directional motivation. Individuals’ default reasoning made them just as receptive to the correction as accuracy-driven reasoning. This finding supports a more optimistic view of human receptivity to science communication than often found in the literature.

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Section: Motivated Reasoningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correcting Misperceptions: The Causal Role of Motivation in Corrective Science Communication About Vaccine and Food Safety

Stekelenburg

Schaap

Veling

et al. 2020

Science Communication

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“…In three instances, data presented here have been reported as part of broader research projects (Levendusky, 2018;Lyons, 2018;Nyhan and Reifler, 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

Self-Affirmation and Identity-Driven Political Behavior

et al. 2021

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Psychological attachment to political parties can bias people’s attitudes, beliefs, and group evaluations. Studies from psychology suggest that self-affirmation theory may ameliorate this problem in the domain of politics on a variety of outcome measures. We report a series of studies conducted by separate research teams that examine whether a self-affirmation intervention affects a variety of outcomes, including political or policy attitudes, factual beliefs, conspiracy beliefs, affective polarization, and evaluations of news sources. The different research teams use a variety of self-affirmation interventions, research designs, and outcomes. Despite these differences, the research teams consistently find that self-affirmation treatments have little effect. These findings suggest considerable caution is warranted for researchers who wish to apply the self-affirmation framework to studies that investigate political attitudes and beliefs. By presenting the “null results” of separate research teams, we hope to spark a discussion about whether and how the self-affirmation paradigm should be applied to political topics.

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“…In this regard, interventions based on identity affirmation, which have been shown to reduce biases of collective identity in the appraisal of science (e.g., Nauroth et al, 2015), may be usefully translated to the context of personal identity. However, it should be noted that the effects of affirmation interventions are themselves inconsistent (Lyons, 2018), and at times might also exacerbate biased evaluations of science (Reavis et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluations of science are robustly biased by identity concerns

Salvatore

Morton

2021

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations

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People are known to evaluate science based on whether it (dis)affirms their collective identities. We examined whether personal identity concerns also bias evaluation processes by manipulating the degree to which summaries of ostensible scientific research about an unfamiliar topic manipulating whether summaries were or inconsistent with how participants thought about themselves. In three preregistered experiments ( N = 644) conducted across two continents, participants were more likely to believe the science when its conclusions aligned with prior understanding of their self, effects that were mediated through positive emotional reactions. Two of the experiments also tested a de-biasing intervention: prior to evaluating science, participants received a brief tutorial on the ecological fallacy (of which, self-related biases represent a special case). The tutorial did not mitigate identity-biased evaluations. This experimental evidence raises questions about whether it is possible to engage global citizens more fully in science consumption while not further triggering identity-based biasing processes.

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Reducing Group Alignment in Factual Disputes? The Limited Effects of Social Identity Interventions

Cited by 12 publications

References 41 publications

Correcting Misperceptions: The Causal Role of Motivation in Corrective Science Communication About Vaccine and Food Safety

Correcting Misperceptions: The Causal Role of Motivation in Corrective Science Communication About Vaccine and Food Safety

Self-Affirmation and Identity-Driven Political Behavior

Evaluations of science are robustly biased by identity concerns

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