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Motivated reasoning is an emotive thinking process where reasoning is guided by the individual’s preconceptions towards desired outcomes. The term motivated reasoning describes the role of motivation in cognitive processes such as decision-making, as it guides people to confirm what they already believe to be true, while ignoring information to the contrary. Likewise it drives people towards rationalization to justify the beliefs they already hold. Motivated reasoning may be seen to be derived from a desire to avoid cognitive dissonance.

2016-09-07T14:56:31+00:00