Desires and emotional comfort shape what people believe is true

Evidence

Motivated reasoning is the idea that what we hope to be true may color our perception of what actually is true. We often reason, that is, within an emotional context. This is arguably the mechanism behind the ideas of dissonance reduction and confirmation bias, and it is easy to see why. When we feel psychic discomfort we are motivated to find a non-ego-threatening way to reduce it, which can lead to the irrational tendency to accommodate our beliefs to our feelings, rather than the other way around. Upton Sinclair perhaps said it best when he observed that “it is difficult to get a man to believe something when his salary depends upon him not believing it.” — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 99

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clear one-line definition of motivated reasoning plus its mechanism, anchored by the Upton Sinclair quote.
• CANDY: The Upton Sinclair line about salary and belief is a tweetable, self-contained quip.
• XREF: connects to: Descriptions can become true because people act on them believing they are true — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 577; Emotional content propagates ideas more than factual accuracy does; Desire and self-identity jointly sustain beliefs — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1800 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Emotional content propagates ideas more than factual accuracy does #corroborates (0.85)
• Descriptions can become true because people act on them believing they are true #expands (0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 577