Motivated reasoning makes people reject information threatening their values and beliefs.

Evidence

As with many things, we tend to believe in the conspiracy theories we want to believe, drawn to the ones that satisfy and reinforce our view of how the world works. Researchers have linked that to a concept called motivated reasoning: we tend to give more weight to studies, news articles, and any other form of information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs and values, and find ways to reject things that don’t line up with what we feel to be true, what talk show host Stephen Colbert memorably called “truthiness.” Studies on motivated reasoning from both the early 1990s and 2000s show the same patterns: we’re not particularly receptive to information that makes us feel defensive or attacked about our existing values or beliefs. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 89

Categorization

• XREF: Motivated reasoning is the shared epistemic engine the reader seeks: the same confirmation-of-identity mechanism allegedly driving conspiracy belief, authoritarianism, and Christian-nationalist framing. — connects to: Directionally motivated reasoning makes people reject disconfirming evidence and seek explanations for it. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 166; People resist updating beliefs even at the cost of accuracy; People experiencing cognitive dissonance often avoid or reinterpret contradictory information rather than abandoning their beliefs when confronted with truth. — Festinger’s Law (+11 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that what feels like truth to threatened people is confirmation of prior values, whatever the evidence, is a load-bearing mechanism the whole vault’s prejudice-psychology claims rest on.

Broader Connections

• Directionally motivated reasoning makes people reject disconfirming evidence and seek explanations for it. #expands (0.95) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 166
• People often distort evidence to fit preexisting worldviews rather than updating beliefs #corroborates (0.95) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 108
• People often resist or reverse belief updating rather than tracking evidence #expands (0.85) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 104
• Motivated reasoning is the motive while confirmation bias is the mechanism #expands (0.85) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 100
• People resist updating beliefs even at the cost of accuracy #expands (0.80)
• Bad faith emerges when one acknowledges facts but refuses their imposed conclusion. #complicates (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 307
• Studying conspiracy beliefs itself triggers defensive backlash from believers. #exemplifies (0.80) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 154
• Gruesome truths can backfire as persuasion because people avoid them #exemplifies (0.75) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3221
• Refuting someone’s core beliefs on facts is often perceived as a personal attack #exemplifies (0.75) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 223
• Correcting false beliefs can strengthen them rather than reduce them #corroborates (0.75) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 350
• People reduce dissonance by changing beliefs rather than behavior #expands (0.75) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 173