Knowledge central: A central role for knowledge attributions in social evaluations. Issue 3 (4th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Turri, John; Friedman, Ori; Keefner, Ashley
• Is Part Of: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. Volume 70:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 504
• Page End: 515
• Publication Date: 2017-03-04
• Subjects: Knowledge -- theory of mind -- social evaluations -- decision making -- outside/inside evidence; Psychology, Experimental -- Periodicals; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Psychology, Comparative -- Periodicals; 150.72405
• DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2015.1136339
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1747-0218

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Five experiments ( N = 1710) demonstrate the central role of knowledge attributions in social evaluations. In Experiments 1–3, we manipulated whether an agent believes, is certain of, or knows a true proposition and asked people to rate whether the agent should perform a variety of actions. We found that knowledge, more so than belief or certainty, leads people to judge that the agent should act. In Experiments 4–5, we investigated whether attributions of knowledge or certainty can explain an important finding on how people act based on statistical evidence, known as "the Wells effect". We found that knowledge attributions, but not certainty attributions, mediate this effect on decision making.