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Do relations between judgment and epistemological beliefs differentiate between mere acceptance and critical
1Laboratory of Experimental Social Psychology, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. guido.peeters@psy.kuleuven.be
Abstract:
In 2004 Latifian and Bashash presented Iranian students with questionnaires assessing (a) their epistemological beliefs regarding religion and science as sources of value and truth and (b) their acceptance of a scenario arguing for relative ethics. Acceptance was related to epistemological beliefs in a condition where the scenario was attributed to Freud but not in a condition where it was attributed to Tabatabaee, a highly authoritative theologian. This commentary questions the authors' explanation, particularly their assumption that the participants' reliance on epistemological beliefs would indicate a more critical attitude towards the scenario in the Freud condition than in the Tabatabaee condition.
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