Thinking clearly about causal inferences of politically motivated reasoning: why paradigmatic study designs often undermine causal inference

By Ben M. Tappin, Gordon Pennycook, David G. Rand. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 2019

121 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A common inference in behavioral science is that people’s motivation to reach a politically congenial conclusion causally affects their reasoning—known as politically motivated reasoning. Often these inferences are made on the basis of data from randomized experiments that use one of two paradigmatic designs: Outcome Switching, in which identical methods are described as reaching politically congenial versus uncongenial conclusions; or Party Cues, in which identical information is described as being endorsed by politically congenial versus uncongenial sources. Here we contend that these designs often undermine causal inferences of politically motivated reasoning because treatment assignment violates the excludability assumption. Specifically, assignment to treatment alters variables alongside political motivation that affect reasoning outcomes, rendering the designs confounded. We conclude that distinguishing politically motivated reasoning from these confounds is important both for scientific understanding and for developing effective interventions; and we highlight those designs better placed to causally identify politically motivated reasoning.

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/24be2287ad56d6acba3739d8346da0ca7e14be20

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In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

The Psychology of Fake News. (2021, background): “Thus, observing a difference across ideological lines is not sufficient evidence to conclude that partisan identity or political motivations are themselves responsible for the difference [27,125].”
Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers, and Fake News: How Social Media Conditions Individuals to Be Less Critical of Political Misinformation (2021, background): “The social forces present in these filter bubbles and echo chambers should lead individuals to directionally motivated reasoning when exposed to political content, which “diminish[es] the motivation to be accurate” (Tappin et al., 2020, p. 81).”