When Mona Lisa Smiled and Love was in the Air: On the Cognitive Energetics of Motivated Judgments

Abstract

We describe two experiments on the determinants of motivated judgments. They explored the conjoint effects of three factors: (1) dominant judgmental motivation (geared toward accuracy or directional bias), (2) task demands, and (3) the availability of cognitive resources. We find that where a directional motivation is dominant and task demands are high (making biasing difficult), the presence (vs. absence) of resources promotes wishful judgments. Conversely, where accuracy motivation is dominant and wishful judgments are the default, resources reduce the likelihood of their occurrence. Finally, where a directional motivation is dominant and task demands are low (making biasing easy), or where the accuracy motivation is dominant and task demands are high, resources have relatively minor effects on bias.