Closed-minded cognition: Right-wing authoritarianism is negatively related to belief updating following prediction error.

ABSTRACT: When confronted with information that challenges our beliefs, we must often learn from error in order to successfully navigate the world. Past studies in reinforcement learning and educational psychology have linked prediction error, a measure of surprise, to successful learning from feedback. However, there are substantial individual differences in belief-updating success, and the psychological factors that influence belief updating remain unclear. Here, we identify a novel factor that may predict belief updating: right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), which is characterized by a desire for order, structure, and preservation of social norms. We hypothesized that because people who score high on RWA are motivated to preserve entrenched beliefs, they may often fail to successfully update their

SUBMITTER: Sinclair AH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7384563 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature