Exam 9: Emotion, Motivated Reasoning, and Critical Thinking

Confirmation bias and belief perseverance are both examples of:

A study by Moons and Mackie (2007) found that when compared to participants induced to be in a neutral mood, participants induced to be in an angry mood performed:

Dorothy Martin, the leader of a UFO cult, said that she had been in contact with aliens after two of her prophecies had failed to occur. The aliens told her that the cult and Earth would be saved because the cult had acted so commendably. The alien message fulfilled the function of:

After studying the critical reading section in this chapter, Alex and Sabrina discussed whether emotion always makes people irrational. Alex said, "I still think it does." Sabrina said, "You're telling me that after all the research we read about this question, you still think it does?" Alex is apparently showing which thinking error?

Which finding BEST summarizes the influence of negative emotion on thinking?

A student received a phone call in which he learned that his father had unexpectedly died of a heart attack at the age of 45. Instead of crying or showing a sad facial expression, the student's face took on an angry expression and he slammed down the phone. The MOST plausible reason for this reaction is that the student:

Damasio (1994) studied a man named Elliot who had damage to the orbital prefrontal region of his brain; Elliot experienced dramatic changes in his behavior after much of this area was removed. Which interpretation of Elliot's case reflects Damasio's findings?

Physiological markers measured on a polygraph (lie detector) indicate changes in stress or anxiety and, therefore, may also indicate lying. People show great differences in their physiological responses measured on polygraphs, and some people beat the machine. Taken together, this evidence suggests that:

Michael Shermer observed that Democrats tend to watch liberal news outlets, while Republicans tend to watch conservative outlets. This tendency of people to attend to a news source that agrees with their beliefs and ignores sources that disagree with them shows:

Both Phineas Gage and Elliot had damage to the prefrontal region of the brain. The prefrontal region is important to rational decision making, and people tend to think that good decision making takes "cold" cognition-that is, rational thinking unaffected by emotion. After Damasio took into account the specific prefrontal area damaged in each man, the two cases indicated that:

The research by Tetlock and Kim (1987) on motivated reasoning found that when participants made predictions about how other people would respond on a personality test, the participants considered more alternative interpretations if they:

Arousing and directing a behavior towards a goal is a common definition of:

Suppose a mayor made a public prediction based on her beliefs, and then the outcome did not match her prediction. According to Leon Festinger's study of disconfirmed predictions, the mayor would MOST likely experience:

Many people believe that emotions cause people to be irrational. Explain whether this is a psychological misconception, defending your conclusion with a summary of relevant findings from the review of scientific research reviewed in your textbook.

Regina saw an advertisement for a charity showing a starving child who was crying. The ad said, "For pennies a day, you can help save a starving child." After making an online donation, Regina became upset when she learned that the charity had higher overhead expenses than other similar charities and so less of her contribution went to help children than to pay for the charity's administration. Regina's poor decision was MOSTLY influenced by:

The fundamental attribution error and the better-than-average effect are both related to the _____ as a tendency to evaluate oneself favorably.

Liam and Lewa, a young married couple, were having a marital spat that got more and more heated. Liam got so angry that he used something against Lewa he knew was a weakness of hers and would make Lewa feel vulnerable. She cried and said, "I can't believe you said that. I don't think I can live with you anymore." The next day, as Lewa was packing to leave, Liam wondered to himself why he had made the hurtful comment. Which strategy could Liam have used to better regulate his emotion?

An informal survey by Parrott (1995) claimed that emotion is associated with a disruption in thinking. The type of evidence and level of support provided by Parrot's survey is BEST considered:

In Haidt's (2001) experiment, participants seemed unable to give a rational reason for why it was wrong for siblings Mark and Julie to make love and said that they just knew it was wrong. This suggests the influence of which kind of thinking?

Westen and his colleagues used fMRI to examine the activation of brain areas of committed Democrats and Republicans when confronted with statements by their favored candidates that were inconsistent with their party's positions. The researchers found that participants used motivated reasoning as a strategy to regulate emotion, maximizing positive affect and minimizing negative affect. The study also showed the brain experienced: