Example of Belief Bias
- Someone accepts the argument "All flowers need water; roses are flowers; therefore roses need water" as valid, but rejects "All things that need water are plants; roses need water; therefore roses are plants" as invalid, even though both have the same logical structure.
The believability of the conclusion influenced the judgment of logical validity, not the actual logical structure. - A jury finds a defense argument compelling because they believe the defendant is innocent, while dismissing an equally logical prosecution argument because they find the guilty conclusion unbelievable.
Prior beliefs about guilt influenced assessment of argument quality.
Note
Extensively studied in cognitive psychology through syllogistic reasoning tasks that contrast logical validity with conclusion believability.
