Knowledge in International Relations: Susceptibilities to Motivated Reasoning Among Experts and Non-Experts
Motivated reasoning as a pervasive feature of human psychology poses challenges to the ideal of liberal democratic government, which relies on citizens’ rationality. Motivated reasoning is at least partially caused by a biased store of knowledge, a partial set of accumulated information that skews r...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology
2019-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Social and Political Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/955 |
| _version_ | 1828077154400731136 |
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| author | Peter Beattie Danielle Snider |
| author_facet | Peter Beattie Danielle Snider |
| author_sort | Peter Beattie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Motivated reasoning as a pervasive feature of human psychology poses challenges to the ideal of liberal democratic government, which relies on citizens’ rationality. Motivated reasoning is at least partially caused by a biased store of knowledge, a partial set of accumulated information that skews reasoning about important political issues. However, there is some evidence that specialized training in a given domain may reduce the effects of motivated reasoning within that domain. To test whether a similar phenomenon is evident in the field of international relations, a signal detection technique is used to measure knowledge of U.S. foreign policy among two samples, one of IR professors and one of laypersons. The results uncover significant differences between experts and nonexperts, indicating that training in IR helps to reduce biases in knowledge, potentially providing “knowledge constraints” on motivated reasoning. Nonetheless, some evidence of bias among IR professors remains, suggesting that knowledge constraints on motivated reasoning may not fully allay normative concerns of bias in the domain of international relations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:25:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d43ced34dd0a4b8ea4c427eef1e9a67d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2195-3325 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:25:15Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Social and Political Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-d43ced34dd0a4b8ea4c427eef1e9a67d2023-01-02T22:52:40ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for PsychologyJournal of Social and Political Psychology2195-33252019-03-017117219110.5964/jspp.v7i1.955jspp.v7i1.955Knowledge in International Relations: Susceptibilities to Motivated Reasoning Among Experts and Non-ExpertsPeter Beattie0Danielle Snider1Faculty of Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SARNational Air and Space Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, USAMotivated reasoning as a pervasive feature of human psychology poses challenges to the ideal of liberal democratic government, which relies on citizens’ rationality. Motivated reasoning is at least partially caused by a biased store of knowledge, a partial set of accumulated information that skews reasoning about important political issues. However, there is some evidence that specialized training in a given domain may reduce the effects of motivated reasoning within that domain. To test whether a similar phenomenon is evident in the field of international relations, a signal detection technique is used to measure knowledge of U.S. foreign policy among two samples, one of IR professors and one of laypersons. The results uncover significant differences between experts and nonexperts, indicating that training in IR helps to reduce biases in knowledge, potentially providing “knowledge constraints” on motivated reasoning. Nonetheless, some evidence of bias among IR professors remains, suggesting that knowledge constraints on motivated reasoning may not fully allay normative concerns of bias in the domain of international relations.http://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/955international relationspsychologyknowledgemotivated reasoningbias |
| spellingShingle | Peter Beattie Danielle Snider Knowledge in International Relations: Susceptibilities to Motivated Reasoning Among Experts and Non-Experts Journal of Social and Political Psychology international relations psychology knowledge motivated reasoning bias |
| title | Knowledge in International Relations: Susceptibilities to Motivated Reasoning Among Experts and Non-Experts |
| title_full | Knowledge in International Relations: Susceptibilities to Motivated Reasoning Among Experts and Non-Experts |
| title_fullStr | Knowledge in International Relations: Susceptibilities to Motivated Reasoning Among Experts and Non-Experts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Knowledge in International Relations: Susceptibilities to Motivated Reasoning Among Experts and Non-Experts |
| title_short | Knowledge in International Relations: Susceptibilities to Motivated Reasoning Among Experts and Non-Experts |
| title_sort | knowledge in international relations susceptibilities to motivated reasoning among experts and non experts |
| topic | international relations psychology knowledge motivated reasoning bias |
| url | http://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/955 |
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