The practice of motivated reasoning: observing knowledge use in real-world policy processes
| Author | Lars Dorren,Mirijam Böhme |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523211047355 |
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
The practice of motivated
reasoning: observing
knowledge use in real-world
policy processes
Lars Dorren
Leiden University –Institute for Public Administration,
The Netherlands
Mirijam Böhme
University of Bamberg, Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences,
Germany
Abstract
Motivated reasoning theory is a psychological theory that reads that policymakers inter-
pret evidence in ways that fit their preferences rather than assessing it neutrally. The
theory is increasingly used to explain policy processes as part of a behavioural approach
to public administration, but it has limitations. As psychological research relies on
experiments, the question remains what role motivated reasoning plays in real-world
policy processes. Based on ethnographic observations collected during the planning
phase of a large infrastructure project, this study confirms that motivated reasoning
explains how people interpret information. However,it also shows that peoples’context
has a great impact on their reasoning. Ultimately, we suggest that a focus on time and
real-world context is essential in understanding processes of reasoning, for which meth-
odological diversification is needed.
Points for practitioners
•People are inclined to interpret information in light of existing attitudes, rather than
approach it neutrally. They read it in such a way that it confirms their attitudes, or
are critical of it when it does not.
Corresponding author:
Leiden University –Institute for Public Administration, Turfmarkt 99, 2511DP The Hague,
The Netherlands.
Email: dorren@fgga.leidenuniv.nl
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2023, Vol. 89(2) 398–414
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00208523211047355
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
•Conflicts caused by differentiating views can be better understood by looking at the
attitudes that inform these views.
•Discussions that might seem aimless at first might have secondary functions such as
building trust amongst participants.
Keywords
motivated reasoning, behavioural public administration, decision-making, ethnography,
infrastructure policy, policymaking
Introduction
It is becoming increasingly popular to study public administration through a behavioural
lens, drawing on psychological theories and behavioural economics to explain decision-
making processes (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017; Kasdan, 2020). A widely used example
of such a theory is motivated reasoning theory. Motivated reasoning implies that policy-
makers are subconsciously inclined to accept information that confirms their attitudes and
matches personal experiences more easily than contending information (Bækgaard and
Serritzlew, 2016; Christensen et al., 2018; Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier, 2011; Thaler
and Sunstein, 2009).
One of the particularitiesof behavioural (public administration) research is its reliance on
experimental methods (Moynihan, 2018). This means that behaviour is studied in a stylized
experimental setting, rather than a real-world context. However, research in both public
administration (Jones and Baumgartner, 2012; Lindblom, 1979; Simon, 1976) and psych-
ology (Gigerenzer and Brighton, 2009; Hertwig and Grüne-Yanoff, 2017) shows that this
real-world context is especially important in understanding decision-making. In other
words, that policymakers engage in motivated reasoning during an experiment does not
tell us the extent to which they will do so in real-life settings, nor how the influence of moti-
vated reasoning mechanisms holds up against external influences.
This paper reflects on the explanatory power of motivated reasoning in a real-world policy
context. It uses concepts from motivated reasoning theory to analyse one year of ethno-
graphic observations collected during the planning phase of a large infrastructure project, fol-
lowing a programme management team developing and then interpreting a report monitoring
the progress and predicting the output of a set of projects. The contribution of this paper is
threefold. First, this approach allows us to analyse if and how policymakers engage in moti-
vated reasoning in a real-world policy context. Second, it shows how motivated reasoning
affects the course of a policy process. Third, it reflects on the added value of studying
mechanisms such as motivated reasoning through observations in real-world contexts.
The paper will first expand on theories of the impact of motivated reasoning on
decision-making and the impact of context on decision-making in policy processes.
Then, we explain how we collected and analysed our data. In the Results section we
observe that, in accordance with motivated reasoning theory, policymakers are likely
to perceive and use the information in reports selectively depending on prior attitudes.
Dorren and Böhme 399
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