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The Influence of Social Interaction on Intuitions of Objectivity and Subjectivity
Author(s) -
Fisher Matthew,
Knobe Joshua,
Strickland Brent,
Keil Frank C.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1111/cogs.12380
Subject(s) - objectivity (philosophy) , objectivism , psychology , construal level theory , subjectivity , argumentative , epistemology , social psychology , social cognition , cognition , cognitive psychology , philosophy , neuroscience
We present experimental evidence that people's modes of social interaction influence their construal of truth. Participants who engaged in cooperative interactions were less inclined to agree that there was an objective truth about that topic than were those who engaged in a competitive interaction. Follow‐up experiments ruled out alternative explanations and indicated that the changes in objectivity are explained by argumentative mindsets: When people are in cooperative arguments, they see the truth as more subjective. These findings can help inform research on moral objectivism and, more broadly, on the distinctive cognitive consequences of different types of social interaction.