The tendency to stop collecting information is linked to illusions of causality

Abstract

Previous research proposed that cognitive biases contribute to produce and maintain the symptoms exhibited by deluded patients. Specifically, the tendency to jump to conclusions (i.e., to stop collecting evidence soon before making a decision) has been claimed to contribute to delusion formation. Additionally, deluded patients show an abnormal understanding of cause-effect relationships, often leading to causal illusions (i.e., the belief that two events are causally connected, when they are not). Both types of bias appear in psychotic disorders, but also in healthy individuals. In two studies, we test the hypothesis that the two biases (jumping to conclusions and causal illusions) appear in the general population and correlate with each other. The rationale is based on current theories of associative learning that explain causal illusions as the result of a learning bias that tends to wear off as additional information is incorporated. We propose that participants with higher tendency to jump to conclusions will stop collecting information sooner in a causal learning study than those participants with lower tendency to jump to conclusions, which means that the former will not reach the learning asymptote, leading to biased judgments. The studies provide evidence in favour that the two biases are correlated but suggest that the proposed mechanism is not responsible for this association.

Believers in pseudoscience present lower evidential criteria

“…qualt rics. com) with the materials provided by Moreno-Fernández et al 12 . The procedure was based on that of Moreno-Fernández et al 12 and Ross et al 16 .…”

“…com) with the materials provided by Moreno-Fernández et al 12 . The procedure was based on that of Moreno-Fernández et al 12 and Ross et al 16 . At the beginning of the experiment, participants were asked not to jot down notes during the task.…”

“…After each draw, they were given the opportunity to provide an answer and end the task, or to continue taking beads. We presented all the volunteers with the same fixed 50 beads color sequence used by Moreno-Fernández et al 12 and Ross et al 16 b, r, b, b, b, r, r, b, r, r, b, b, b, b, r, b, b, r, r, r, r, b, b, r, b, b, b, which extends the 20-beads sequence used previously by Garety et al 17 . The dependent variable was the number of beads taken before giving an answer.…”

“…In a recent study, individuals showing a more pronounced jump-to-conclusions bias in the beads task also developed a stronger causal illusion in a contingency learning task 12 . Causal illusion refers to the impression that two events (e.g.…”

The Challenge of Conducting Research in the Neonatal and Pediatric Age and of Translating Results Into Clinical Practice*

“…This leads people to stop gathering information when the evidence they retrieve confirms their views, exposing them to the risk that preconceived opinions (biases) not based on reason or on factual knowledge may be considered valid (18).…”