THE MODERATING INFLUENCE OF VARIABILITY ON BELIEF REVISION

Authors
REHDER B HASTIE R
Citation
B. Rehder et R. Hastie, THE MODERATING INFLUENCE OF VARIABILITY ON BELIEF REVISION, Psychonomic bulletin & review, 3(4), 1996, pp. 499-503
Citations number
19
Categorie Soggetti
Psychologym Experimental","Psychology, Experimental
Journal title
Psychonomic bulletin & review → ACNP
ISSN journal
10699384
Volume
3
Issue
4
Year of publication
1996
Pages
499 - 503
Database
ISI
SICI code
1069-9384(1996)3:4<499:TMIOVO>2.0.ZU;2-Q
Abstract
The variability of the information on which a belief was initially bas ed should moderate the degree to which the belief is revised when new disconfirming information is received. Reasoning from everyday intuiti ons, psychological theories of concept representation, and a rational mathematical analysis, we inferred that as variability increased, resi stance to disconfirming information would also increase. Participants' judgments of the central tendencies of distributions of numerical inf ormation confirmed this prediction.