Motivated Reasoning in a Causal Explore-Exploit Task by Zachary A. Caddick B.A. in Psychology, California State University

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Motivated Reasoning in a Causal Explore-Exploit Task by Zachary A. Caddick B.A. in Psychology, California State University Motivated Reasoning in a Causal Explore-Exploit Task by Zachary A. Caddick B.A. in Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino, 2013 M.A. in Experimental and Research Psychology, San José State University, 2016 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science University of Pittsburgh 2020 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This thesis was presented by Zachary A. Caddick It was defended on March 17, 2020 and approved by Timothy J. Nokes-Malach, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychology Kevin R. Binning, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology Thesis Advisor: Benjamin M. Rottman, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychology ii Copyright © by Zachary A. Caddick 2020 iii Motivated Reasoning in a Causal Explore-Exploit Task Zachary A. Caddick, M.S. University of Pittsburgh, 2020 The current research investigates how prior preferences affect causal learning. Participants were tasked with repeatedly choosing policies (e.g., increase vs. decrease border security funding) in order to maximize the economic output of an imaginary country, and inferred the influence of the policies on the economy. The task was challenging and ambiguous, allowing participants to interpret the relations between the policies and the economy in multiple ways. In three studies, we found evidence of motivated reasoning despite financial incentives for accuracy. For example, participants who believed that border security funding should be increased were more likely to conclude that increasing border security funding actually caused a better economy in the task. In Study 2, we hypothesized that having neutral preferences (e.g., preferring neither increased nor decreased spending on border security) would lead to more accurate assessments overall compared to having a strong initial preference, however, we did not find evidence for such an effect. In Study 3, we tested whether providing participants with possible functional forms of the policies (e.g., the policy takes some time to work, or initially has a negative influence but eventually a positive influence) would lead to a smaller influence of motivated reasoning, but found little evidence for this effect. This research advances the field of causal learning by studying the role of prior preferences, and in doing so, integrates the fields of causal learning and motivated reasoning using a novel explore-exploit task. iv Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. x List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... xi 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Motivated Reasoning........................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Causal Learning .................................................................................................................. 5 1.2.1 Ambiguity. ..................................................................................................................... 5 1.2.2 Active Learning and Explore/Exploit Paradigms. .................................................... 7 2.0 Summary of Studies and Hypotheses .................................................................................... 8 3.0 Study 1.................................................................................................................................... 10 3.1 Method................................................................................................................................ 10 3.1.1 Participants. ................................................................................................................ 10 3.1.2 Design. .......................................................................................................................... 10 3.1.3 Economic Functions. .................................................................................................. 11 3.1.4 Procedures and Measures. ......................................................................................... 13 3.1.4.1 Initial Instructions. ............................................................................................. 13 3.1.4.2 Initial Policy Assessment. ................................................................................... 14 3.1.4.3 Party Color Selection. ......................................................................................... 14 3.1.4.4 Economic Learning Task. .................................................................................. 15 3.1.4.5 Function Identification. ...................................................................................... 17 3.1.5 Individual Differences. ............................................................................................... 18 3.2 Results ................................................................................................................................ 18 v 3.2.1 Participants. ................................................................................................................ 19 3.2.2 Choices in the Learning Task. ................................................................................... 19 3.2.2.1 Amount of Testing by Preference. ..................................................................... 19 3.2.2.2 Number of Trials Until Testing by Preference (Figure 4). .............................. 20 3.2.2.3 Never Testing Bias by Preference (Figure 5). ................................................... 21 3.2.2.4 Testing the Optimal Policy by Preference (Figure 6). ..................................... 23 3.2.2.5 Summary of Choices During the Learning Task. ............................................ 25 3.2.3 Judgments of Policy Efficacy After the Learning Task. ......................................... 25 3.2.3.1 Causal Functions (Figure 7). .............................................................................. 25 3.2.3.2 Non-Causal Functions (Figure 8). ..................................................................... 27 3.2.4 Function Identification. .............................................................................................. 28 3.2.4.1 Causal Functions (Table 1). ............................................................................... 29 3.2.4.2 Non-Causal Functions. ....................................................................................... 29 3.2.5 Relations Between Choices During the Learning Task and Judgments of Policy Efficacy. ................................................................................................................................ 30 3.3 Study 1 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 30 4.0 Study 2.................................................................................................................................... 32 4.1 Method................................................................................................................................ 32 4.1.1 Participants. ................................................................................................................ 33 4.2 Results ................................................................................................................................ 34 4.2.1 Choices in the Learning Task. ................................................................................... 34 4.2.1.1 Amount of Testing by Preference. ..................................................................... 34 4.2.1.1.1 Causal Functions. ......................................................................................... 34 vi 4.2.1.1.2 Non-Causal Functions. ................................................................................ 34 4.2.1.2 Number of Trials Until Testing by Preference (Figure 4). .............................. 34 4.2.1.3 Never Testing Bias by Preference (Figure 5). ................................................... 35 4.2.1.4 Testing the Optimal Policy by Preference (Figure 6). ..................................... 35 4.2.1.5 Summary of Choices During the Learning Task. ............................................ 37 4.2.2 Judgments of Policy Efficacy After the Learning Task. ......................................... 38 4.2.2.1 Causal Functions (Figure 7). .............................................................................. 38 4.2.2.2 Non-Causal Function (Figure 8). ....................................................................... 39 4.2.3 Function Identification. .............................................................................................. 40 4.2.3.1 Causal Functions (Table 1). ............................................................................... 40 4.2.3.2 Non-Causal Functions (Table 2). ....................................................................... 41 4.3 Study 2A & 2B Discussion ................................................................................................ 41 5.0 Study 3...................................................................................................................................
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