Open-minded and reflective thinking predicts reasoning and meta-reasoning: evidence from a ratio-bias conflict task

Abstract

Dispositional measures of actively open-minded thinking and cognitive reflection both predict reasoning accuracy on conflict problems. Here we investigated their relative impact on meta-reasoning. To this end, we measured reasoning accuracy and two indices of meta-reasoning performance – conflict detection sensitivity and meta-reasoning discrimination – using a ratio-bias task. Our key predictors were actively open-minded thinking and cognitive reflection, and numeracy, cognitive ability, and mindware instantiation were controlled for. Actively open-minded thinking was a better predictor of reasoning accuracy and meta-reasoning discrimination than cognitive reflection, and was the only dispositional measure to significantly predict conflict detection sensitivity. Thus, susceptibility to biased reasoning and meta-reasoning may be better captured by a reasoner’s ability to engage in open-minded thinking than by their ability to engage in reflective thinking.

Keywords:

• Meta-reasoning
• individual differences
• bias susceptibility
• thinking dispositions

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by an HDR Research Award from the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University. The authors would like to thank Matthew Christian and Olivia Burton for their feedback on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Author contributions

H.W.S and M.M.A conceived the study. H.W.S programmed the experiment and collected the data. H.W.S and P.W analyzed the data. H.W.S and G.E.B co-wrote the manuscript and P.W made critical edits.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data are publicly available at Open Sciences Framework: https://osf.io/jm63r/?view_only=15070473806541548adc224496c86660