Science desk
< February 2	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 4 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 3[edit]

Contradictory views[edit]

Are there any studies on the effects on people when they hold inconsistent views?
I suspect it creates a certain amount of psychological distress. 2A02:8071:60A0:92E0:0:0:0:B32D (talk) 13:56, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

IP editor. The article on cognitive dissonance has many references. Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:25, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See also wishy-washy. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:23, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It only creates distress when people are aware of the inconsistency. I've heard speakers demand that critics be silenced, arguing that the criticism is an attack on their right to free speech. --Lambiam 22:13, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ha ha, that's really quite a good one. :-} NadVolum (talk) 00:47, 4 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You might find [1] interesting. NadVolum (talk) 00:58, 4 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tribal thinking AKA groupthink is polarizing. However, this study "No association between numerical ability and politically motivated reasoning in a large US probability sample" and most others (see its introductory section) failed to replicate the original study that appeared to "...show that deliberative analytical... reasoning is hijacked by identity...". Instead, it affirmed that political alignment affects everyone's accuracy, but those with better analytical reasoning had better scores regardless. Modocc (talk) 02:23, 4 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well that's a bit reassuring - or perhaps the statisticians results were affected by their tribal identities ;-) NadVolum (talk) 12:34, 4 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]