Changing your mind |
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Authors: | Clare R Walsh P N Johnson-Laird |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, P.O. Box 601553, 14415 Potsdam, Germany;(2) University of Bristol, Bristol, England; |
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Abstract: | When individuals detect an inconsistency in a set of propositions, they tend to change their minds about at least one proposition
to resolve the inconsistency. The orthodox view from William James (1907) onward has been that a rational change should be
minimal. We propose an alternative hypothesis according to which individuals seek to resolve inconsistencies by explaining their
origins. We report four experiments corroborating the explanatory hypothesis. Experiment 1 showed that participants’ explanations
revised general conditional claims rather than specific categorical propositions. Experiment 2 showed that, when explanations
did revise the categorical proposition, participants also tended to deny the consequences of a second generalization. Experiment
3 showed that this tendency persists when participants previously affirmed these consequences explicitly. Experiment 4 showed
that, when participants could easily explain an inconsistency by revising a generalization, they were more likely to accept
the consequences of a second generalization. All four results contravene minimalism but support the explanatory hypothesis. |
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