Deck 9: Emotion, Motivated Reasoning, and Critical Thinking

Question 1

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?

A) Type 1 thinking
B) Type 2 thinking
C) Rational-analytic thinking
D) Post hoc thinking

Answer 1

Type 1 thinking

Question 2

Dorothy Martin, the leader of a UFO cult, made a prophecy about a destructive flood on Earth. After the prophecy failed to materialize, the members of the UFO cult began to seek new members as a way to:

A) reduce the group's cognitive dissonance, because its ideas must be true if other people believed them.
B) prevent the members from splintering into smaller groups, which would effectively end the group's beliefs.
C) introduce new ideas into the group that would be more acceptable to the members than were the original ideas.
D) reduce infighting and group tensions surrounding the failed prophecies.

Answer 2

reduce the group's cognitive dissonance, because its ideas must be true if other people believed them.

Question 3

Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress have shown a great reluctance to examine the other side's proposals and instead prefer to stick to their own party's talking points. The BEST remedy for dealing with this thinking error is for members of Congress to:

A) try to make their own arguments more logical and compelling.
B) look for their bias blind spots and acknowledge them.
C) consider the other side's views and try to understand them.
D) explain their own views in a more sympathetic way.

Answer 3

consider the other side's views and try to understand them.

Question 4

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:

A) belief bias.
B) belief perseverance.
C) confirmation bias.
D) illusory correlation.

Question 5

Confirmation bias and belief perseverance are both examples of:

A) logical fallacies.
B) thinking errors found in deductive reasoning.
C) emotional influences that lead to irrational behaviors.
D) thinking errors related to motivated reasoning.

Question 6

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:

A) had been encouraged to report their impressions honestly.
B) were told they would be accountable for justifying their judgments.
C) were encouraged to be sympathetic to the people responding on the personality tests.
D) knew people who had similar personality traits as the people they were judging.

Question 7

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:

A) reinterpreting the failed prophesy and reducing cognitive dissonance.
B) encouraging the group's belief bias by explaining away the failed prediction.
C) using confirmation bias to ignore the negative evidence and maintain belief.
D) making an argument from possibility for the group's belief bias to be maintained.

Question 8

The text discusses a UFO cult and its leader, Dorothy Martin. Even though Martin's prophecy about aliens did not come to pass, she told her followers that she maintained contact with the aliens. Martin's response provides a good example of which thinking error?

A) Cognitive dissonance
B) Belief bias
C) Confirmation bias
D) Belief perseverance

Question 9

Aliyah's critical thinking instructor was talking about the importance of being fair-minded in considering the sides of an argument. Aliyah said to herself, "I think I am more fair-minded than most of the students I have met." If Aliyah's self-evaluation reveals that she is showing a thinking error, it is MOST likely:

A) the better-than-average effect.
B) the fundamental attribution error.
C) belief bias.
D) confirmation bias.

Question 10

The text discusses a UFO cult and its leader, Dorothy Martin, who awaited rescue by aliens from a coming flood on Earth. When an alien UFO did not arrive to rescue the cult, Martin responded to the failed prophesy by:

A) doubting that the aliens were contacting her, and changed her belief.
B) continuing to believe that the aliens were contacting her.
C) telling her followers that she had misunderstood the prophecy.
D) explaining that the followers had not been worthy of the aliens.

Question 11

_____ are often marked by expressive behaviors, subjective experience, motivated dispositions to behave a certain way, and physiological changes.

A) Motives
B) Emotions
C) Cognitions
D) Dispositions

Question 12

The BEST interpretation of the reaction shown by people who were affected by the 1938 radio play broadcast of The War of the Worlds suggests that:

A) emotional reactions to both real and staged events can lead to psychological disorders.
B) through motivated reasoning, people may interpret events the way they want to.
C) the emotion of fear may sweep rapidly through people and lead to perceptual errors.
D) listeners should realize that newscasters cannot be trusted to present accurate information.

Question 13

The tendency for people to lack accurate knowledge of their own biases is MOST related to a deficiency in which aspect of critical thinking?

A) Critical thinking skills
B) Metacognitive reflection
C) Knowledge of the rules for reasoning
D) Knowledge of a subject

Question 14

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:

A) cognitive dissonance.
B) emotional disparity.
C) motivational distortion.
D) goal distortion.

Question 15

The tendency for people to lack accurate knowledge or awareness of their own biases is called:

A) my-side bias.
B) confirmation bias
C) self-serving bias.
D) the bias blind spot.

Question 16

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

A) emotion.
B) motivation.
C) motivated reasoning.
D) cognition.

Question 17

Eliza said that the reason she was unable to get a job during the recession was because employers were not hiring in her field, but as soon as they began to hire again she got a job because she is a hard worker. According to Eliza, many other unemployed people did not get jobs because they are simply lazy. What is the thinking error she seems to be making?

A) Confirmation bias
B) Bias blind spot
C) Motivated reasoning
D) Fundamental attribution error

Question 18

The unwillingness for Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress to examine the other side's proposals and instead stick to their own party's talking points is BEST described as the operation of:

A) belief bias.
B) the bias blind spot.
C) motivated reasoning.
D) confirmation bias.

Question 19

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

A) myside bias
B) confirmation bias
C) self-serving bias
D) the bias blind spot

Question 20

Theories maintaining that emotions are discrete assume that basic emotions, such as fear and anger, are:

A) continuous or vary by degree.
B) distinguishable from each other and are natural.
C) learned and so vary a great deal right from birth.
D) not biologically based and so cannot be recognized in facial expressions of people from other cultures.

Question 21

Research studies on the effect of emotion on risk-taking found that participants induced to be:

A) happy are less likely to bet on a "long shot" that involves risk.
B) angry tend to be less pessimistic in their estimation of risk than people experiencing other emotions.
C) sad tend to be more pessimistic in their estimation of risk than people experiencing other emotions.
D) in any intense negative emotional state tend to be more pessimistic in their estimation of risk than people experiencing neutral emotion.

Question 22

Which kind of evidence is the citation related to the writings of Plato, the influential Greek philosopher who wrote that reason should subdue and master emotion?

A) Anecdote
B) Commonsense belief
C) Statement of nonscientific authority
D) Empirical study

Question 23

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:

A) no increase in activation of the amygdala.
B) no changes in the cingulate cortex, an area often activated when a person confronts a discrepancy.
C) activation in the amygdala in the first half of the study and also in the prefrontal cortex and cingulate cortex.
D) activation throughout the prefrontal region of the cortex.

Question 24

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. Initially, participants showed an increase in activation of the amygdala. This effect may have occurred because the amygdala is:

A) a limbic system structure associated with processing of fear and anxiety in response to threats.
B) the area in the back of the brain that is activated when the brain must resolve a conflict or discrepancy.
C) a part of the prefrontal cortex responsible for the cognitive aspects of decision making.
D) a part of the temporal part of the brain responsible for remembering decisions.

Question 25

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:

A) the polygraph should still be used in criminal investigations despite its problems.
B) using physiological measures to detect lying is basically a good idea.
C) investigators are often right to administer a polygraph test to suspects.
D) the polygraph may not be a good way to accurately detect lying.

Question 26

Which statement is the BEST conclusion to draw from the literature review on the question of whether emotion makes people be irrational?

A) Generally, emotions make a person think and behave irrationally, regardless of the task and situation.
B) Only negative emotions make a person think and behave irrationally.
C) Researchers have not been able to conduct studies that show emotions make a person think and behave irrationally.
D) Both positive and negative emotions may impair or improve a person's reasoning and decision making, depending on the situation and task.

Question 27

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:

A) appraised the situation as shocking and showed the emotion of surprise.
B) remembered that the last time he talked to his father they had an argument.
C) did not like being told this bad news over the phone.
D) appraised the situation as unfair that he lost his father at such an early age.

Question 28

The critical reading section in this chapter discusses the researchers Isabelle Blanchette (2014) and Roy Baumeister and his colleagues (2007), who conducted literature reviews on whether emotion makes people irrational. The researchers' reviews present _____ as evidence that provides _____.

A) summaries of case studies of people who were negatively impacted by emotion; fairly weak support
B) statements of authority; weak support because of biased studies that supported only one side
C) statements of authority; weak support based on many low-quality studies
D) statements of scientific authority; strong support based on many high-quality research studies.

Question 29

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:

A) rational decision making could be regained by Gage and Elliot.
B) normal emotional processing is needed for rational decision making.
C) the connection between decision making and emotion cannot be determined by only two unique cases.
D) damage to brain areas related to language impairs the ability to make rational decisions.

Question 30

The introduction of mood induction procedures was a major advance in the scientific study of emotion and mood states because it:

A) gave researchers a way to directly study actual states of clinical depression and other real affective states.
B) provided a way to test participants who had actual mood disorders.
C) allowed researchers to compare induced emotions to neutral emotional states as control conditions in which participants experience no emotion.
D) allowed researchers to experimentally manipulate emotion and mood states and to potentially show cause and effect.

Question 31

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:

A) better on measures of creative thinking.
B) worse on measures of creative thinking.
C) worse on measures of reasoning ability.
D) better on measures of reasoning ability.

Question 32

The process of experiencing an emotion often begins with interpretation of the situation, which is called a(n):

A) appraisal.
B) attitude.
C) revelation.
D) rational analysis.

Question 33

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:

A) a fairly low-quality, nonscientific survey documenting a commonsense belief and, therefore, providing weak support.
B) a commonsense belief, providing fairly weak support for the claim because it was based on the opinions of students.
C) a statement of nonscientific authority, providing weak support.
D) based on a literature review of nonscientific studies, providing weak support.

Question 34

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?

A) Elliot showed angry outbursts, suggesting that this part of the prefrontal cortex regulates emotional response.
B) Elliot's decision making was impaired the most when he lost his temper.
C) Elliot's case suggests that normal emotion is needed for rational decision making.
D) Elliot had to relearn how to succeed in business and family life, suggesting the brain shows great plasticity.

Question 35

Which of the following is true about the use of polygraphs (lie detectors)?

A) The polygraph is worth using because it does not often misidentify innocent people as liars.
B) It is a psychological misconception to conclude that the polygraph is a reliable technique for identifying people who are lying.
C) It is not possible to beat a polygraph test that is conducted by a qualified polygraph operator.
D) Results from polygraph tests are commonly used as evidence in courts of law.

Question 36

Which statement is true about depression according to the research reviewed in the critical reading exercise on whether emotion makes people less rational?

A) Depression impairs a person's ability to think rationally and has been identified as leading to increases in negative emotions, such as anger and anxiety.
B) Depression can impair the ability to think rationally, but depressed participants have been shown to perform significantly faster on a deductive reasoning task.
C) Depression almost always impairs reasoning, while happiness improves reasoning.
D) Depression is the best example of how an emotion impairs reasoning because among the various negative emotions, it is the one that shows the most negative effects.

Question 37

The critical reading section in this chapter discusses the researchers Isabelle Blanchette (2014) and Roy Baumeister and his colleagues (2007), who conducted literature reviews on whether emotion makes people irrational. These researchers concluded that:

A) almost always, emotions make a person think and behave irrationally.
B) only negative emotions make a person think and behave irrationally.
C) emotions sometimes hinder and sometimes help people's reasoning and decision making.
D) often positive emotions make a person think and behave irrationally, and they never facilitate thinking.

Question 38

In the legal arena, the fact that people often view emotion as involuntary and reason as voluntary and deliberate is MOST related to:

A) the legal argument that "his brain made him do it."
B) the difference in the legal penalty for murder as a crime of passion versus a premeditated murder.
C) the insanity defense as it is used in legal proceedings in many states.
D) the way courts treat women versus men in legal proceedings, because women are assumed to be more emotional and less rational.

Question 39

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

A) Positive emotion can have beneficial effects, as when people put into a positive mood improve their creative thinking.
B) In all cases, positive affect improves the quality of thinking.
C) Positive affect often impairs reasoning, but the result also depends on the task and individual differences in participants.
D) In many cases, positive affect impairs learning.

Question 40

One sense of the word rational is that a person is following the rules and norms for good reasoning, such as reasoning logically. Another sense of the word discussed in the critical reading discussion concerns:

A) whether thinking helps create or maintain bias.
B) whether thinking helps maintain a person's beliefs.
C) how well thinking helps a person reach his or her goals.
D) how well thinking helps a person avoid thinking errors.

Question 41

Explain how motivated reasoning is related to the biases and thinking errors that people show. Provide examples of different thinking errors, and describe how they are related to motivated reasoning.

Question 42

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.

Question 43

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?

A) Belief bias
B) Belief perseverance
C) Self-serving bias
D) Illusory correlation

Question 44

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 than other similar charities and so less of her contribution went to help children than to pay for the charity's administration. The BEST strategy Regina could have used to avoid her bad decision would have been to:

A) consider other emotions she might experience in response to the ad.
B) try to separate the option under discussion from the emotional appeal.
C) slow down her response to the threatening situation, such as counting to 10 before responding.
D) use relaxation training to reduce her negative emotional response to the ad.

Question 45

The president said, "Our enemy is threatening us with utter destruction. Now they appear to be acquiring nuclear weapons. We have been unable to negotiate with them. It is imperative that we take military action against our enemy before they finish development of their weapons of mass destruction and use them against us, killing millions of people." By saying this, the president is:

A) using the argumentation strategy called "appealing to emotion."
B) trying to modify people's strong negative emotions to get them to act.
C) asking people to reappraise an emotion to see a real danger.
D) making an argument from possibility using negative emotion.

Question 46

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:

A) the self-serving bias and her desire to feel good about helping.
B) her responding too quickly.
C) her incorrectly appraising a situation.
D) an appeal to emotion (pity).

Question 47

Travis has been dreading his required statistics class for two years. Although his previous math course performance has been average, he has told himself that he is not good at math. When he finally takes his first exam in the statistics class, Travis reads the first question and does not know how to answer it. His mouth is dry and he feels tense and jittery. From that point on, he cannot concentrate on any other questions and he runs out of time. As a result, he fails the exam. To deal with the problem that emotion is contributing to his thinking, Travis should:

A) reappraise the situation and reduce his negative emotion by practicing relaxation.
B) respond less quickly to the threatening stimuli.
C) separate the content of the test information from the appeal to emotion.
D) direct his attention to something less threatening, such as thoughts about what he will do after the test.

Question 48

The president said, "Our enemy is threatening us with utter destruction. Now, they have appear to be acquiring nuclear weapons. We have been unable to negotiate with them. It is imperative that we take military action against our enemy before they finish development of their weapons of mass destruction and use them against us, killing millions of people." What is the BEST strategy for countering the president's appeal to emotion?

A) Consider the other side's position before responding.
B) Try to separate the claim or question under discussion from the emotional appeal.
C) Slow down the response to the anger-provoking situation, such as counting to 10 before responding.
D) Use relaxation training to reduce negative emotional responses.

Question 49

Researchers using mood induction procedures induce and manipulate moods in participants and then make comparisons to control conditions presumed to induce a neutral mood. In a neutral mood state, a participant would not experience any mood strongly and so would lack a specific emotion. What is an unwarranted assumption that researchers may be making when using procedures to induce neutral mood as a control condition?

A) There is really such a thing as neutral mood in which a person does not experience any emotion.
B) Participants in a neutral mood condition might think that they are supposed to be in some mood and then pretend to be in a different mood.
C) A neutral mood is the kind of mood a participant would want to be induced to be in.
D) It is ethical to induce a neutral mood in experimental research.

Question 50

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?

A) When he felt himself getting angry, he could have counted to 10 or reminded himself that this was a point at which he might say something he would regret.
B) He could have changed the subject completely and avoided talking about the problem.
C) He could have told Lewa that she was incorrectly appraising a situation and urged her to reappraise the situation.
D) When he felt himself getting angrier, he could have stopped and thought of different words rather than using the appeal to emotion.