We are all prone to motivated reasoning in which our personal goals distort our beliefs. For example, most drivers and most professors think they are above average. Ziva Kunda’s 1990 paper “The Case ...

Motivated reasoning in political judgment refers to the cognitive tendency for individuals to process political information in a manner that aligns with their pre-existing identities, beliefs and ...

A new study lays out a bit of a conundrum in its opening paragraphs. It notes that scientific progress depends on the ability to update what ideas are considered acceptable in light of new evidence.

Have you ever wondered why some people refuse to change their minds, even when faced with hard facts? Well, it turns out that “motivated reasoning” is to blame — and we’re all guilty of it. It’s ...

National Review reports that the Justice Department announced that it found my university, George Mason, in violation of Title VI: At the center of the scandal is Gregory Washington, the university's ...

“Why Progressives Should Question Their Favorite Scientific Findings” (The Chronicle Review, October 25) is a classic case of misdirection. As Paul Bloom well knows, the phenomenon of motivated ...

Something is rotten in the state of American political life. The U.S. (among other nations) is increasingly characterized by highly polarized, informationally insulated ideological communities ...

Motivated reasoning is the idea that our mental processes often cause us to filter the evidence we accept based on whether it’s consistent with what we want to believe. During these past few weeks, it ...

I am an atmospheric scientist, professor, and the former president of the American Meteorological Society. From these lenses, I have spent a career fascinated by weather, climate, and related societal ...