#583 Peter Ditto: Motivated Reasoning, Morality, and Politics
RECORDED ON OCTOBER 20th 2021.
Dr. Peter Ditto is Professor of Psychological Science at UC Irvine School of Social Ecology. He is interested in “hot cognition” — the interface between passion and reason. His research examines the role of motivation, emotion and intuition in social, political, moral, medical, and legal judgment. Most generally, he has sought to explain the phenomenon of “motivated reasoning” — how the desire to reach a particular conclusion biases the processing of information related to that conclusion. His early work examined the role such biases play in responses to threatening medical information (e.g., denial). More recently, his work has focused on motivated moral reasoning, particularly how people selectively recruit general principles and factual beliefs to support desired moral conclusions. Another key focus of his current research is partisan political bias. This work examines the multiple ways that political ideology biases our political judgments and behavior. Finally, he is interested in a variety of psychological issues involved in end-of-life medical decision making.
In this episode, we talk about motivated reasoning, morality, and politics. We start with motivated reasoning, what it is, and the domains where it applies. We apply it to medical decision-making. We discuss how moral reasoning works, moral intuitions, moral foundations, and the connection between morality and politics. We talk about political bias and science denial on the left and the right. We discuss the special case of libertarians. Finally, we talk about how we should think about the relation between personality and politics, and personality and morality, and Dr. Ditto gives an evolutionary rationale for motivated reasoning and political behavior.
Time Links:
Intro
What is motivated reasoning?
Medical decision-making, and medical information denial
Moral reasoning, and the moral foundations
From morality to politics
Political bias – are liberals and conservatives equally biased?
Science denial on the right and the left
What’s up with the libertarians?
Personality, morality, and politics
An evolutionary rationale for motivated reasoning and politics
Follow Dr. Ditto’s work!
Follow Dr. Ditto’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3vlqorH
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3wwKFun
Yourmorals.org: https://bit.ly/3lWKypw