Inductive reasoning with emotional contents

IntroductionWe investigated the vastly ignored effect of emotion on inductive reasoning using the dual-systems framework (Evans, 2003). In two studies, we examined the impact of emotional content on statistical reasoning under experience-relevant and experience- irrelevant conditions.Method64 controls were recruited in Study 1. For Study 2, both controls (N = 74) and victims of sexual abuse (N = 23) were recruited. The impact of emotion on inductive reasoning was examined in three content types: generally emotional, sexual abuse and neutral.ResultsBase rate taskControl participants relied more on the anecdotal than the statistical information specifically for the sexual abuse problems in Study 1, and this was also observed for generally emotional problems in Study 2. The impact of anecdotal information was similar in all three content types for victims.Belief problem taskVictims relied more on statistical information on the sexual abuse contents thancontrols.DiscussionAs expected, the relative impact of anecdotal information was greater for theemotional contents compared to neutral contents for controls. This was different forvictims who relied on statistical evidence more than controls for sexual abuseproblems and showed no difference in reasoning about emotional compared to neutralbase rate problems.ConclusionResults are consistent with the proposition that irrelevant emotion generally impairs analytical processes while experience-relevant emotion has a beneficial effect.ReferencesEvans, J. S. B. T. (2003). In two minds: dual-process accounts of reasoning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(10), 454-459.