When Dysrationalia Afflicts the Highly Rational: Disrupting Processing Fluency Can Undermine Analytic Reasoning

• In Event: Flawed Processing: Inaccuracy, Irrationality and Delusional Processes in Social Cognition

Abstract

Experiment 1 failed to support the hypothesis that processing fluency disruptions of probative value judgments after reading a threatening anecdote would attenuate fear, problem seriousness and victimization risk estimates. Story headlines’ and probative value items’ processing fluency was manipulated in Experiment 2. When both fonts were easy or difficult to process low rationals evinced greater fear, problem seriousness and victimization risk estimates than highs. Easily-processed headline fonts with difficult-to-process probative value fonts increased high’s estimates.

Author

• Charles Berger, University of California, Davis