Seeing What You Want to See: How Imprecise Uncertainty Ranges Enhance Motivated Reasoning
Abstract
In this article, we consider a novel criterion for evaluating representations of uncertainty ranges, namely, the extent to which a representation enhances motivated reasoning. In two studies, we show that perceptions of the distribution underlying ambiguous numerical ranges are affected by the motivations and worldviews of end users. This motivated reasoning effect remained after controlling for objective numeracy and fluid intelligence but was attenuated when the correct interpretation was made clear. We suggest that analysts and communicators explicitly consider the potential for motivated evaluation when evaluating uncertainty displays.
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In the contexts of climate change and gun control, people tend to apply the most worldview-consistent interpretation of technical uncertainty.
“in the contexts of climate change and gun control, people tend to apply the most worldview-consistent interpretation of technical uncertainty (Dieckmann, Gregory, Peters, and Hartman, 2017).”
From A review of the effects of uncertainty in public science communication (2020) · cites this paper as Dieckmann, Gregory, Peters, and Hartman, 2017
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- Authors
- Dieckmann, N. F., Gregory, R., Peters, E., & Hartman, R.
- Affiliations
- Oregon Health & Science University (US)
- Decision Research (US)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Mitre (United States) (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dieckmann, Nathan F.
- Venue
- Risk Analysis
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2016-09-26
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 471-486
- ISSN
- 0272-4332 (ISSN-L)
- 1539-6924
- OpenAlex
- W2527361991
- Cited by
- 84
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 3.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Risk Analysis (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0925008, 1231231)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Risk Perception and Management
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Data Visualization and Analytics
- Keywords
- motivated reasoning, uncertainty ranges, numerical range, ambiguity, uncertainty communication, numeracy, fluid intelligence
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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