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When conflicts are good: nonconscious goal conflicts reduce confirmatory thinking.
1Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA. tali.kleiman@nyu.edu
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|July 17, 2013
Summary
Nonconscious goal conflicts reduce confirmatory thinking, encouraging consideration of opposing viewpoints. This research reveals how unconscious conflicts impact decision-making and information processing across various domains.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Decision Science
Background:
- Nonconscious goal conflicts can influence cognitive processes beyond the immediate conflict.
- Confirmatory thinking, a tendency to seek confirming evidence, is a robust feature of human reasoning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of nonconscious goal conflicts on confirmatory thinking.
- To determine if nonconscious goal conflicts promote a broader consideration of information by reducing confirmatory biases.
Main Methods:
- Five experiments were conducted to examine the effects of nonconscious goal conflicts.
- Methods included measuring confirmatory hypothesis testing, anchoring effects, and decision times.
- Alternative explanations such as semantic priming were systematically rejected.
Main Results:
- Nonconscious goal conflicts significantly reduced confirmatory hypothesis testing and anchoring.
- These effects were specifically attributable to goal conflicts, not mere priming.
- Changes in judgment were observed without corresponding changes in subjective experience of conflict.
Conclusions:
- Nonconscious goal conflicts attenuate the tendency towards confirmatory thinking.
- This suggests that unconscious goal conflicts promote a more balanced approach to information processing, considering multiple perspectives.
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