Thinking false and slow: Implausible beliefs and the Cognitive Reflection Test

Why do people believe implausible claims like conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and fake news? Past studies using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) suggest that implausible beliefs may result from an unwillingness to effortfully process information (i.e., cognitive miserliness). Our analysis (N = 664) tests this account by comparing CRT performance (total score, number and proportion of incorrect intuitive responses, and completion time) for endorsers and non-endorsers of implausible claims. Our results show that endorsers performed worse than non-endorsers on the CRT, but they took significantly longer to answer the questions and did not make proportionally more intuitive mistakes. Endorsers therefore appear to process information effortfully but nonetheless score lower on the CRT. Poorer overall CRT performance may not necessarily indicate that those who endorse implausible beliefs have a more reflexive, intuitive, or non-analytical cognitive style than non-endorsers.

Automated summary

Why do people believe implausible claims? A study was conducted to test whether this is due to an unwillingness to effortfully process information. Results show that endorsers of implausible claims performed worse on a cognitive test, took longer to answer, but did not make more intuitive mistakes than non-endorsers. Poor performance on the test does not necessarily indicate a more intuitive cognitive style.