Motivated reasoning
<p>November 14, 2020, 9:01 PM</p>
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<p>emotionally biased reasoning; we believe the conclusion, therefore we believe the evidence.</p>
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<p><strong>Motivated reasoning</strong> is a phenomenon studied in <a title="Cognitive science" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science">cognitive science</a> and <a title="Social psychology" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_psychology">social psychology</a> that uses emotionally-biased reasoning to<strong> produce justifications</strong> or make decisions that are <strong>most desired rather than those that accurately reflect the evidence,</strong> while still reducing <a title="Cognitive dissonance" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance">cognitive dissonance</a>. In other words, motivated reasoning is the "tendency to find arguments in favor of conclusions we want to believe to be stronger than arguments for conclusions we do not want to believe".<sup id="cite_ref-kunda_1-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning#cite_note-kunda-1">[1]</a></sup></p>
<p>Motivated reasoning is similar to <a title="Confirmation bias" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias">confirmation bias</a>, where evidence that confirms a belief (which might be a logical belief, rather than an emotional one) is either sought after more or given more credibility than evidence that disconfirms a belief. It stands in contrast to <a title="Critical thinking" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking">critical thinking</a> where beliefs are approached in a skeptical and unbiased fashion.</p>
<p>It can lead to forming and clinging to false beliefs despite substantial evidence to the contrary. The desired outcome acts as a filter that affects evaluation of scientific evidence and of other people.<sup id="cite_ref-oleary_2-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning#cite_note-oleary-2">[2]</a></sup></p>
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