WOGPOP: Josh Pasek

Title: Information x Identity: How Individuals Adopt Biased Political Attitudes

Abstract: In contemporary society, individuals holding different social identities often report diverging beliefs and attitudes on matters of political importance. The theory of motivated reasoning is often purported to explain these divisions, with proponents arguing that individuals seek out and accept information with the goal of bolstering existing political identities. In this talk, I argue that challenges associated with developing complex political attitudes can lead to a variety of additional circumstances whereby individuals can reach diverging conclusions based on their identities. I show evidence that biases in information acquisition and processing occur across multiple social identities and that these biases are possible even when individuals are trying to act as “rational” Bayesian updaters of information. Because complex attitudes require individuals to weigh multiple pieces of information, attitudes are driven not only by the collection of evaluations of those pieces of information but also by perceptions of the attributes of those pieces of information, such as credibility, confidence, and importance. Collectively, coupling evaluations of a piece of information with judgements of these informational attributes allows individuals to reach identity-consistent conclusions even when motivated to provide accurate assessments. I show evidence of these processes as individuals evaluate information about a fictitious officer-involved shooting and model how they occur in the context of broad reforms to health care in the United States. I discuss the implications for social processes, political polarization, and the potential for interventions to address identity-based divisions in political beliefs and attitudes.