The dynamics of motivated perception: Effects of control and status on the perception of ambivalent stimuli

Abstract

Previous studies on attentional biases often show contradictory results. This suggests that important moderating variables have been neglected so far. We suggest that (1) control over potential consequences and (2) satisfaction with the current status are important factors that need to be considered. We explored the influence of these variables using a colour classification task, where colours are associated with financial gains and losses. Data were analysed with hierarchical logistic regression models and with stochastic diffusion models. The latter approach has the special advantage that it allows separating perceptual and judgemental biases. Results show an overall positive judgemental bias. In the absence of control, this positivity bias increases with the amount of money that has been gained, whereas the opposite pattern is present when dangers can be controlled. In the second experiment, no general feedback was given, which led to an increasing negativity bias. Results are discussed within an action theoretic framework.

Keywords:

• Attentional bias
• Motivated perception
• Motivated reasoning
• Counter regulation
• Control
• Diffusion model

Notes

¹ Sex was entered as predictor here because there is evidence that men and women differ in risk perception and risk taking (Byrnes, Miller, & Schafer, 1999)

² We also conducted an analysis ignoring the current bank account. However, this analysis showed an unsatisfactory model fit.

³ In this paradigm, most participants won continuously some money so that there is a high correlation of bank account with trial number (r = 0.85). Therefore, it is difficult to separate effects of bank account from pure sequence effects. Nonetheless, the model fit in terms of the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) of the bank-account model was better than the fit of a model with trial number (AIC = 6140 vs. 6147). A statistical comparison is not possible because both models have the same degrees of freedom.

⁴ Although there was no explicit feedback on the current bank account, we entered this variable into analyses to permit comparisons with results from Experiment 1. Bank account effects suggest that participants kept an internal account, that is, they had a general idea of the sum of trial-wise pay-offs (which were still reported). Interestingly, the model including bank account still had a better fit compared with a model with trial number as predictor.