Epistemological sensitization as a short-term intervention to change epistemological beliefs – is it effective or not?

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of an epistemological sensitization to change domain-specific epistemological beliefs. An epistemological sensitization is a short-term intervention that presents a domain's epistemological features to elicit epistemological doubt when these features are dissonant with a person's current epistemological beliefs. In a pre-post-test design, two sensitization interventions (argumentative vs. informative) were compared to a control condition in their ability to reduce absolutist and multiplicist beliefs and foster evaluativist beliefs with a sample of psychology students. Two different measures of domain-specific epistemological beliefs were used as dependent variables. The results show that while there is evidence for a reduction of either absolutism or multiplicism, there are, at the same time, backfire effects. There was no evidence for an increase in evaluativism. However, these effects depend on the epistemological belief measure. We finally discuss possible reasons for the findings and present the study's limitations.