Emotion, beliefs, and self-deception: The influence of emotional devotion in a belief on self-deception

Abstract

The availability of information is greater than ever before. However, choosing what information to use in our decision making has become more and more complicated, due to this quantity of available information. Emotions influence our beliefs and research shows that biases exist to preserve these beliefs, even though, rationally, beliefs should be revised based on new information that is presented, even if it contradicts prior convictions. Self-deception is the process of disregarding this rational process of updating beliefs based on new rational information to protect an emotional belief. In this research the emotional devotion of a belief and the dismissal of rational information was measured using a novel online questionnaire (N=80). It was hypothesized that emotional devotion in a belief (emotional belief) was positively correlated with the dismissal of rational argumentation (self-deception). The results showed no significant effect of emotional devotion in a belief on self-deception. Emotional thinking explained most of the variance in self-deception. These results could imply that the dismissal of rational arguments that are inconsistent with one’s belief is predicted by how threatening new information is perceived to be.