TUBITAK ARDEB 1001 Support to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onurcan Yılmaz

The project titled “Does Analytical Thinking Lead to Motivated Reasoning or Cognitive Differentiation?” by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onurcan Yılmaz, a faculty member of our Department of Psychology, has been accepted for funding under the TÜBİTAK ARDEB 1001 Program.

This project aims to clarify in which situations and for whom cognitive parsing and motivated reasoning occur, by systematically testing the function of analytical thinking, the most critical part of the three-stage model. The project will make a methodological contribution by testing the generalizability of stronger versions of the two response paradigms (within-groups time-constraint method). Motivated reasoning processes will be examined in a variety of contexts, such as climate change, anti-vaccination and political polarization, and inferences will be made about the actual behavior of individuals through economic games. This approach will make a second methodological contribution by testing the attitude-behavior gap. The project aims to make potential practical contributions to the literature by examining the effects of analytic thinking on polarization in different contexts and across differences between political groups.

We congratulate Onurcan and the project team and wish them success.