Vladimíra ?avojová|Jakub Šrol|Marek Jurkovi?
Why should we try to think like scientists? Scientific reasoning and susceptibility to epistemically suspect beliefs and cognitive biases
Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences|Slovak Academy of Sciences|Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences|Slovak Academy of Sciences|Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences|Slovak Academy of Sciences
summary paper examines whether scientific reasoning skills predict peoples susceptibility epistemically suspect beliefs cognitive biases used recently developed scientific reasoning scale srs measures ability read evaluate scientific evidence alongside srs 317 participants aged 1830 years completed measures thinking dispositions cognitive ability ascertain whether srs contributes specifically susceptibility epistemically suspect beliefs cognitive biases scientific reasoning correlated positively dispositions towards analytic thinking cognitive ability negatively dogmatism epistemically suspect beliefs susceptibility cognitive biases importantly emerged significant predictor contributing susceptibility cognitive biases epistemically suspect beliefs cognitive predictors results provide first empirical evidence scientific reasoning ability important factor protecting epistemically suspect beliefs aiding better decision making among nonscientific population