Motivated Responding in Studies of Factual Learning, with Gaurav Sood (2017).
Citation: Khanna, K., & Sood, G. (2018). Motivated responding in studies of factual learning. Political Behavior, 40(1), 79-101.
Abstract: Large partisan gaps in reports of factual beliefs have fueled concerns about citizens’ competence and ability to hold representatives accountable. In three separate studies, we reconsider the evidence for one prominent explanation for these gaps —motivated learning. We extend a recent study on motivated learning that asks respondents to report the conclusion supported by numerical data from a hypothetical study. In a series of three experiments, we offer a random subset of respondents a small financial incentive to accurately report what they have learned. We find that a substantial portion of what is taken as motivated learning is instead motivated responding. That is, incentives successfully nudge respondents to report an uncongenial but accurate answer when they would have ordinarily reported a congenial but incorrect answer. Relatedly, respondents exhibit little bias in recalling the data. However, incentivizing people to faithfully report uncongenial facts increases bias in their judgments of credibility of what they have learned. In all, our findings suggest that motivated learning is less common than what the literature suggests, but that there is a whack-a-mole nature to bias.
Links: full article, replication materials, blog post
