Do We Appeal to the Knowledge of Our Political Rivals?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Social Psychology
• Philosophy of Science

Background:

• Categorical explanations use labels to describe phenomena.
• Label entrenchment in society affects perceived explanation quality, irrespective of actual informativeness.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate if label entrenchment effects persist within specific communities.
• Examine if community affiliation mediates the label entrenchment effect.
• Determine if entrenchment in epistemically suspect groups influences the effect.

Main Methods:

• Conducted five online behavioral experiments.
• Utilized US partisans (Democrats and Republicans) as participants.
• Assessed perceived informativeness of categorical explanations based on label entrenchment.

Main Results:

• Partisans rated explanations higher when labels were entrenched in their own political community compared to a rival community.
• Labels entrenched in rival communities still led to higher perceived informativeness than no entrenchment.
• The effect was absent when labels were entrenched in the Flat Earth Society, an epistemically suspect group.

Conclusions:

• The label entrenchment effect is community-specific and influenced by ingroup-outgroup dynamics.
• Belonging to a community enhances perceived explanation quality when labels are entrenched within it.
• Epistemic suspectness of a community negates the label entrenchment effect, highlighting the role of shared knowledge and trust.