The DOI matches its Crossref record; 53 of the 53 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
When Beliefs Yield to Evidence: Reducing Biased Evaluation by Affirming the Self
Abstract
People often cling to beliefs even in the face of disconfirming evidence and interpret ambiguous information in a manner that bolsters strongly held attitudes. The authors tested a motivational account suggesting that these defensive reactions would be ameliorated by an affirmation of an alternative source of self-worth. Consistent with this interpretation, participants were more persuaded by evidence impugning their views toward capital punishment when they were self-affirmed than when they were not (Studies 1 and 2). Affirmed participants also proved more critical of an advocate whose arguments confirmed their views on abortion and less confident in their own attitudes regarding that issue than did unaffirmed participants (Study 3). Results suggest that assimilation bias and resistance to persuasion are mediated, in part, by identity-maintenance motivations.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“In terms of research interventions, reducing ego-defensiveness by encouraging people to affirm positive things about themselves sometimes helps to reduce information-processing biases129,130.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [129]
In the citing paper
“Accordingly, as a means of identity self-defense, individuals conform their appraisals of information in a manner that buttresses beliefs associated with belonging to particular groups (Cohen, Aronson & Steele, 2000;Cohen, 2003;Cohen, Sherman, Bastardi, Hsu, McGoey & Ross, in press).”
From Culture and Identity‐Protective Cognition: Explaining the White‐Male Effect in Risk Perception (2007) · cites this paper as Cohen, Aronson & Steele, 2000
In the citing paper
“Researchers have shown that individuals who are either personally affirmed or exposed to group-affirming stimuli thereafter display less bias when processing information that is contrary to beliefs dominantly held by their peers (Cohen, 2000;Sherman & Cohen, 2002;Cohen et al., in press).”
From Culture and Identity‐Protective Cognition: Explaining the White‐Male Effect in Risk Perception (2007) · cites this paper as Cohen, 2000
In the citing paper
“Participants even changed their global attitudes toward capital punishment in the direction of the report they read.That is, proponents of capital punishment supported the death penalty less, and opponents of capital punishment supported it more (Cohen et al., 2000, Study 2).”
From The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory (2006) · cites this paper as Cohen et al., 2000
In the citing paper
“When self-integrity is aYrmed, people are less biased in their judgments of information related to their political identity (Cohen et al., 2000), their health (Reed & Aspinwall, 1998;Sherman et al., 2000), and their impressions of others (Fein & Spencer, 1997;Spencer et al., 2001).”
From The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory (2006) · cites this paper as Cohen et al., 2000
Citations
Cites
A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Festinger, L. (1957) · doi:10.1515/9781503620766 · Cited by 24,241
The case for motivated reasoning.
Kunda, Z. (1990) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480 · Cited by 9,022
(2004) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.41-3182 · Cited by 4,740
Lord, C. G., Ross, L., & Lepper, M. R. (1979) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.11.2098 · Cited by 4,583
The Psychology of Self-Affirmation: Sustaining the Integrity of the Self
Steele, C. M. (1988) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60229-4 · Cited by 3,697
Self-citationThe Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes
Katz, D. (1960) · Public Opinion Quarterly · doi:10.1086/266945 · Cited by 3,130
Theories of cognitive consistency : a sourcebook
Abelson, R. P. (1969) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 2,002
Festinger, L., Riecken, H. W., & Schachter, S. (1956) · doi:10.1037/10030-000 · Cited by 1,579
Self-complexity as a cognitive buffer against stress-related illness and depression
Linville, P. W. (1987) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.4.663 · Cited by 1,399
Self-complexity as a cognitive buffer against stress-related illness and depression.
Linville, P. W. (1987) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.52.4.663 · Cited by 1,399
Research works printed but not linked: 7
- Bastardi, N., 2000, Maintaining self-integrity: Effects of threat to personal identity on evidence evaluation and concession making
- Bless, H., 1990, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 99, 229
- Gilovich, T., 1991, How we know what isn’t so: The fallibility of human reasoning in everyday life
- Harber, K., 1995, Sources of Validation Scale
- 10.1037/0022-3514.62.1.26 · DOI
- Ross, L., 1980, New directions for methodology of behavioral science: Fallible judgment in behavioral research
- Ross, L., 1995, Values and knowledge
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Cultural cognition of scientific consensus.
Kahan, D. M., Jenkins‐Smith, H., & Braman, D. (2011) · Journal of Risk Research · doi:10.1080/13669877.2010.511246 · Cited by 1,686
The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory
Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2006) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(06)38004-5 · Cited by 1,614
The Nature and Origins of Misperceptions: Understanding False and Unsupported Beliefs About Politics
Flynn, D. J., Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2017) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12394 · Cited by 1,183
Party Over Policy: The Dominating Impact of Group Influence on Political Beliefs.
Cohen, G. L. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.5.808 · Cited by 1,400
Self-Enhancement: Food for Thought
Sedikides, C., & Gregg, A. P. (2008) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00068.x · Cited by 880
Metadata
- Authors
- Cohen, G. L., Aronson, J., & Steele, C. M.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cohen, Geoffrey L.
- ORCID
- Cohen, Geoffrey L.
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2000-11
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1151-1164
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W2041949427
- Cited by
- 584
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 55 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 16.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychology of Social Influence
- Keywords
- self-affirmation, resistance to persuasion, identity preservation, motivated reasoning, belief updating, disconfirming evidence, abortion attitudes
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 ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
