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The Influence of Numeracy and Problem Difficulty on Response Judgment and Decision Making, Vol. 15, No. 2, March 2020, pp. 203–213 Interpreting politically-charged numerical information: The influence of numeracy and problem difficulty on response accuracy S. Glenn Baker, Ph.D.∗ Niraj Patel, Ph.D.† Curtis Von Gunten, Ph.D.‡ K. D. Valentine, Ph.D.§ Laura D. Scherer, Ph.D.¶ Abstract People who possess greater mathematical skills (i.e., numeracy) are generally more accurate in interpreting numerical data than less numerate people. However, recent evidence has suggested that more numerate people may use their numerical skills to interpret data only if their initial interpretation conflicts with their worldview. That is, if an initial, intuitive (but incorrect) interpretation of data appears to disconfirm one’s beliefs, then numerical skills are used to further process the data and reach the correct interpretation, whereas numerical skills are not used in situations where an initial incorrect interpretation of the data appears to confirm one’s beliefs (i.e., motivated numeracy). In the present study, participants were presented with several data problems, some with correct answers confirming their political views and other disconfirming their views. The difficulty of these problems was manipulated to examine how numeracy would influence the rate of correct responses on easier vs. more difficult problems. Results indicated that participants were more likely to answer problems correctly if the correct answer confirmed rather than disconfirmed their political views, and this response pattern did not depend on problem difficulty or numerical skill. Although more numerate participants were more accurate overall, this was true both for problems in which the correct answer confirmed and disconfirmed participants’ political views. Keywords: numeracy, motivated numeracy, partisan politics, judgment and decision-making 1 Introduction (Dawson, et al., 2002), and even time predictions (Buehler, Griffin & MacDonald, 1997). Thus, it is easy to under- In the United States political landscape of 2020, not much stand why motivated reasoning has been widely implicated is as apparent and consequential as partisan political po- as the best way to understand why political partisans are of- larization (Kaltenthaler & Miller, 2012). One longstand- ten unable to come to agreement on many (or most) topics ing explanation of entrenched political polarization is that (Lebo & Cassino, 2007; Leeper & Slothuus, 2014; Red- people selectively search for, interpret, and integrate infor- lawsk, 2002; Slothuus & De Vreese, 2010; Vallone, Ross mation that confirms and bolsters their political worldview & Lepper, 1985; Westen et al., 2006). and identity while also discounting information that chal- One important question is the extent to which motivated lenges or disconfirms it — a phenomenon often called “mo- reasoning is affected by individual differences in cognitive tivated reasoning” (Dawson, Gilovich & Regen, 2002; Ep- ability, such mathematical ability (i.e., numeracy; Peters ley & Gilovich, 2016; Gilovich, 1991; Hastorf & Cantril, 2012; Stanovich & West, 2007; Toplak, West & Stanovich, 1954; Holyoak & Simon, 1999; Klayman & Ha, 1987; 2011) or other components of intelligence. If a person pos- 1 Kunda, 1990; Kunda, 1987; Lord, Ross & Lepper, 1979). sesses the cognitive proficiencies necessary to understand Moreover, motivated reasoning has been found to influence the evidence either in support of or against a given claim, a wide range of judgments, including stereotype activation then they might be more likely to consider and incorporate and assessment (Kundra & Sinclair, 1999), science com- evidence that conflicts with their preexisting beliefs and atti- munication (Hart & Nisbett, 2012), critical reasoning skills tudes. However, those same intelligent and highly numerate individuals might be among those most able to counter argue Copyright: c 2020. The authors license this article under the terms of and dismiss evidence with which they disagree. Therefore, the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. cognitive abilities could reasonably be expected to either ∗Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA. Email: sg- [email protected]. protect against or exacerbate motivated reasoning. How- †University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. ever, there is also considerable evidence indicating that the ‡School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC. tendency to interpret information in favor of preexisting be- § Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. liefs and attitudes is no more or less likely among individu- ¶University of Colorado-Denver, Denver, CO. 1Later we discuss why we put “motivated reasoning” and similar terms als with greater cognitive abilities (Stanovich & West, 2000; in quotes. Stanovich & West, 2007; Stanovich & West, 2008b; Toplak, 203 Judgment and Decision Making, Vol. 15, No. 2, March 2020 Exploring the “motivated numeracy hypothesis” 204 West & Stanovich, 2011). For example, college entrance sponse than participants whose pre-existing beliefs con- exam scores, which are associated with both numeracy and flicted with the correct response. intelligence test scores, have been found to be unassociated In their study, participants were presented with four nu- with many cognitive biases (Stanovich, West, & Toplak, merical values arranged in 2 × 2 table where the key to cor- 2013; West, Meserve & Stanovich, 2012; Stanovich & West, rectly interpreting the data involved ratio comparisons be- 2008a; 2008b). Thus, even the most intelligent among us tween rows; thus, requiring the use of the values in all four may be biased by preexisting beliefs and are capable of mak- cells. When participants were presented with problems in an ing sub-optimal judgments that are not exclusively based apolitical context (i.e., concerning the effectiveness of skin upon the available evidence. cream), more numerate participants were more likely to an- Many studies have shown that numeracy (i.e., the abil- swer the problems correctly than were less numerate partic- ity to process probability and numerical concepts; Peters, ipants (Kahan et al., 2017a). However, when the problems Västfjäll, Slovic, Mertz, Mazzocco & Dickert, 2006), un- presented a politicized topic (e.g., concealed carry handgun like more general ability measures, is associated with op- laws and their effects on crime), numeracy did not straight- timal judgment and decision-making and the avoidance of forwardly increase correct responding. Instead, responses heuristic errors. For example, research has shown that of more numerate participants were simply more consistent more numerate individuals perform better on metacognitive with their prior beliefs. tasks, (Cokely, Ghazal & Garcia-Retamaro, 2014), compre- This phenomenon has become known as “motivated nu- hension of medical information (Peters, Hibbard, Slovic & meracy”. A recent replication with a large sample of online Dieckmann, 2007), and are less susceptible to framing ef- participants reported similar results, further supporting the fects (Peters, Västfjäll, Slovic, Mertz, Mazzocco & Dick- initial findings (Kahan et al., 2017).2 ert, 2006). Numerical ability has also been cited as a key It is important to note that interpreting responses in the re- protective factor against committing the conjunction fallacy; search of Kahan et al. (2017a) as a form of motivated reason- more numerate individuals are less likely to display this fal- ing, or more generally a form of bias, it debatable and has lacy (Liberali, Freyna, Furlan, Stein & Pardo, 2012), partic- been challenged. Recent research has argued that incorpo- ularly when they engage in deliberative thinking strategies rating prior beliefs (i.e., Bayesian reasoning) is, in fact,ara- (Scherer, Yates, Baker & Valentine, 2017). The tendency for tional thought process (Baron & Jost, 2019; Bullock, 2009; more numerate individuals to make better decisions might Druckman & McGrath 2019). Thus, weighing one’s previ- lead us to expect that numeracy is also associated with a re- ous beliefs (i.e., “strong gun laws don’t save lives”) into a duced tendency to engage in motivated reasoning when in- data interpretation problem regarding the impact of efficacy terpreting numerical evidence and data. In particular, when of gun laws and arriving at a partisan-confirming conclusion confronted with evidence or data that violates their expec- does not necessarily constitute a form of bias, because it is tations or worldview, people with greater numerical ability not irrational to consider one’s prior beliefs in the face of might be expected to interpret evidence or data fairly and new evidence (Bullock, 2009). accurately, compared with their less numerate peers. Like- Furthermore, research has argued that people struggle to wise, less numerate individuals might be especially inclined make a distinction between the implications of the informa- to interpret evidence and data as if it were consistent with tion they are given, putting aside their prior beliefs, and the their preexisting beliefs, because they lack the skills neces- conclusion about what is true, all things considered (Kuhn, sary to correctly interpret the data. 1993; Kuhn, Shaw & Felton, 1997; Kuhn, 2001). Therefore, Recently, Kahan, Peters, Dawson and Slovic (2017a) re- when confronted with information that disconfirms one’s ported a striking and somewhat counterintuitive example of political views, people may fail to interpret it correctly not the relationship between numeracy and motivated reason- because they were motivated to discount it, but because
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