Simulating motivated cognition

A research effort to develop a sophisticated computer model of human behavior is described. A computer framework of motivated cognition was developed. Motivated cognition focuses on the motivations or affects that provide the context and drive in human cognition and decision making. A conceptual architecture of the human decision-making approach from the perspective of information processing in the human brain is developed in diagrammatic form. A preliminary version of such a diagram is presented. This architecture is then used as a vehicle for successfully constructing a computer program simulation Dweck and Leggett's findings that relate how an individual's implicit theories orient them toward particular goals, with resultant cognitions, affects, and behavior

Retrieval-induced forgetting as motivated cognition

Recalling information from a particular category can reduce one's memory capability for related, non-retrieved information. This is known as the retrieval-induced forgetting effect (RIF; Anderson et al., 1994). The present paper reviews studies that show that the RIF effect is motivated. More specifically, we describe research showing that the need for closure (NFC; the motivation to attain epistemic certainty; Kruglanski and Webster, 1996) generally enhances the RIF, because this prevents uncertainty and confusion from the intrusion of unwanted memories during selective-retrieval. However, when the content of the to-be-forgotten information serves the retriever's goals, NFC reduces RIF. Overall, the present findings are consistent with the view that motivation can affect the magnitude of RIF effects which, in turn, can serve as a mechanism for reaching preferred conclusion

Can Motivated Cognition Exacerbate a Bias?

This study examined the relationship between the need for cognition and impression formation, particularly with common biases. Upon listening to a speaker with either a heavy Japanese or Los Angeles accent, participants rated the speaker on how well-informed they believed she appeared to be on the subject she spoke about and on intelligence. Despite the need for cognition, speakers with a Los Angeles accent were rated less favorably on intelligence, compared to Japanese accented speakers. However, the high need for cognition participants utilized a stereotype in impression formation, as their ratings for both speakers resonated with the speaker’s respective stereotype. Contrary to previous research findings, this study suggests that high need for cognition individuals are actually not protected from common biases, and these biases affect people of varying levels of need for cognition in different ways

Motivational pessimism and motivated cognition

I introduce and discuss an underappreciated form of motivated cognition: motivational pessimism, which involves the biasing of beliefs for the sake of self-motivation. I illustrate how motivational pessimism avoids explanatory issues that plague other (putative) forms of motivated cognition and discuss distinctions within the category, related to awareness, aetiology, and proximal goals

On the Closed-Mindedness of Revenge: Motivated Cognition and Perspective Taking

The present research examined the extent of desire for, and the likelihood of enacting, revenge as a function of the Need for Cognitive Closure (NFC; Kruglanski, 2004; Webster & Kruglanski, 1994). The studies herein aimed to more fully understand how low (vs. high) NFC individuals are able to refrain from acting on revenge impulses which they were expected to do through greater cognitive processing. Specifically, I demonstrate across four studies that high (vs. low) NFC individuals desire revenge to a greater extent as well as engage in more retributive behaviors. Study 2 showed that perspective taking and attributional reasoning are examples of additional processing engaged in by low (vs. high) NFC individuals, which augment the desire for forgiveness. Study 3 demonstrated that an induction of perspective taking leads to lesser revenge behavior and indeed eliminated the difference in retaliation between high and low NFC individuals. Study 4 conceptually replicated the relationship between the NFC and retaliation using situational manipulations of high (vs. low) NFC. The present studies were unable to show that following a transgression, revenge (vs. forgiveness) is the most cognitively accessible option and were further unable to demonstrate that accessibility of revenge changes over time for high NFC individuals

Making sense of entertainment

This contribution explores the relationship of emotion and cognition in entertainment experience. Drawing on the reflective model of aesthetic experience (Cupchik, 1995) and the concept of appreciation (Oliver & Bartsch, 2010), we propose a multi-level view of affective processing that includes simple affect schemata as well as more elaborate forms of sociomoral reasoning that build on this basic layer of emotional meaning. To better understand how affective factors can stimulate or impede cognitive elaboration processes, we review research on motivated cognition that has dealt with the influence of arousal, valence, and personal relevance on cognitive depth. The role of affect in defensive information processing (i.e., the motivated neglect or denial of information) is also considered. Specifically, we discuss how research on motivated cognition can help explain thought-provoking entertainment experiences, and the potential of such experiences to stimulate self-reflection and personal growth

Is sexism a gender issue? A motivated social cognition perspective on men’s and women’s sexist attitudes toward own and other gender

The present research investigated the antecedents of ambivalent sexism (i.e., hostile and benevolent forms) in both men and women toward own and other gender. In two heterogeneous adult samples (Study 1: N = 179 and Study 2: N = 222), it as revealed that gender itself was only a minor predictor of sexist attitudes compared to the substantial impact of individual differences in general motivated cognition (i.e., Need for closure). Analyses further showed that the relationship between Need for closure and sexism was mediated by social attitudes (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation), which were differently related to benevolent and hostile forms of sexism. In the discussion it is argued that sexism primarily stems from individual differences in motivated cognitive style, which relates to peoples? perspective on the social world, rather than from group differences between men and women

Absurd Stories, Ideologies, and Motivated Cognition

PENULTIMATE DRAFT. At times, weird stories such as the Pizzagate spread surprisingly quickly and widely. In this paper I analyze the mental attitudes of those who seem to take those absurdities seriously: I argue that those stories are often imagined rather than genuinely believed. Then I make room for the claim that often these imaginings are used to support group ideologies. My main contribution is to explain how that support actually happens by showing that motivated cognition can employ imagination as a seemingly rational tool to reinforce and protect beliefs

Democracy\u27s Distrust: Contested Values and the Decline of Expertise

This response to Professor Dan Kahan’s recent Harvard Foreword, Neutral Principles, Motivated Cognition, and Some Problems for Constitutional Law, argues that while Kahan accurately describes the contemporary “neutrality crisis” and the consequent popular mistrust of the Supreme Court, he has mistaken its cause and thus proposes the wrong solution. Kahan attributes the crisis to “motivated cognition,” and asks judges to adopt techniques that rely on and foster an underlying popular agreement about cultural values. This response essay instead acknowledges the existence and inevitability of contested values in our constitutional democracy. The essay contends that the real causes of the neutrality crisis are the declining credibility of expertise and a growing popular belief – spread by legal academics (and others) who accuse the Court of politically motivated activism – that judges are legislators in robes. The solution thus cannot come from judges, but depends on a fundamental change in how we describe and criticize the Court, its Justices, and its decisions

The intergenerational transmission of need for closure underlies the transmission of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice

Previous research has identified need for closure (NFC) as an important motivational cognitive basis of authoritarianism and prejudice. However, to date, the role of NFC in the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and prejudice has remained unclear. In a sample of 169 parent-child dyads, we investigated the similarity between parents and children in NFC and tested whether this intergenerational similarity may account for the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice. Our results revealed that parental levels of NFC were indeed concordant with the levels of NFC in their children. Even more importantly, parental NFC was indirectly related to child authoritarianism and prejudice in two ways. The first pathway proceeded through the direct relationships between parental and children’s levels of authoritarianism and prejudice. The second pathway, however, bypassed parental levels of authoritarianism and prejudice and proceeded through the intergenerational similarity in NFC. Our findings thus indicate that a significant portion of children’s levels of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice can be explained by parents–child similarity in motivated cognition. Implications for developmental theories of prejudice acquisition are discussed