Personal Values and Cognitive Biases

Psychology textbooks abound with demonstrations of classic biases, yet the question why some people are more or less susceptible to those biases remains little explored. Drawing on Schwartz Values Theory (1992), we aim to show how individual differences in personal values, which express trans-situational, chronic motivations of a perceiver, impact cognitive biases.

In six studies (N = 843; 42.6% female, M_age = 30.7), we assessed personal values and manipulated or measured two fundamental cognitive biases: the self-serving bias (Studies 1-3) and the halo effect (Studies 4-6).

As hypothesized, individuals were more susceptible to cognitive biases, when the content of a bias was compatible with their important values. Specifically, the more individuals emphasized achievement values, the more they were susceptible to the self-serving bias; and the more individuals emphasized benevolence values, the more they were susceptible to the halo effect of warmth. Other value types were not systematically associated with the biases.

Overall, our findings indicate that cognitive biases are more likely to emerge when their manifestations are compatible with the chronic motivation of the perceiver. We suggest additional examples of cognitive biases that may be related to values and discuss theoretical implications of our findings.