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Dimensions of identity-representing belief.
1Department of Psychology, Yale University, United States of America.
Cognition
|November 28, 2025
Summary
This study explored two belief types: symbolic beliefs for identity and epistemic beliefs for facts. Findings indicate these belief dimensions are distinct and largely independent, not a single continuum.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Philosophy of Mind
Background:
- Recent theories propose beliefs function as either symbolic (identity-expressive) or epistemic (fact-representing).
- These theories suggest belief features, like importance or evidence sensitivity, might align along a single dimension.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically investigate the proposed distinction between symbolic and epistemic beliefs.
- To determine if symbolicness and epistemicness represent a single belief dimension or are separate constructs.
Main Methods:
- Five studies involved participants rating beliefs on features related to symbolicness and epistemicness.
- Factor analysis was used to assess the structure of symbolicness and epistemicness features.
- Beliefs were assessed for importance, objectivity, and evidence-drivenness.
Main Results:
- Belief importance correlated with symbolic features but not consistently with epistemic features.
- Symbolic features formed a coherent factor, while epistemic features did not consistently load together.
- Symbolicness and epistemicness (objectivity and evidence-drivenness) consistently loaded on separate, uncorrelated factors across studies.
Conclusions:
- Symbolicness and epistemicness are coherent dimensions of belief.
- These dimensions are largely orthogonal, suggesting they are independent constructs rather than points on a single continuum.
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