Rethinking the link between cognitive sophistication and politically motivated reasoning

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Political Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Partisan disagreement on policy facts is common in American politics.
• Disagreements are often largest among the most cognitively sophisticated partisans.
• Existing research suggests cognitive sophistication magnifies politically motivated reasoning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of cognitive sophistication in politically motivated reasoning.
• To disentangle the effects of political group identity and prior factual beliefs on reasoning.
• To test whether cognitive sophistication amplifies politically motivated reasoning.

Main Methods:

• Conducted three studies using a paradigmatic experimental design.
• Statistically controlled for participants' prior factual beliefs.
• Examined the association between cognitive sophistication, political group identity, and reasoning.

Main Results:

• A robust direct effect of political group identity on reasoning was observed.
• No evidence was found that cognitive sophistication magnifies politically motivated reasoning.
• Cognitive sophistication consistently magnified the effect of prior factual beliefs on reasoning.

Conclusions:

• Current empirical evidence for cognitive sophistication magnifying politically motivated reasoning is ambiguous.
• Prior factual beliefs, not political identity, are magnified by cognitive sophistication in reasoning.
• Highlights conceptual and empirical challenges in testing theories of motivated reasoning.