Reactive devaluation is a
cognitive bias
A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of reality, not the objective input, m ...
that occurs when a proposal is devalued if it appears to originate from an antagonist. The bias was proposed by
Lee Ross
Lee David Ross (August 25, 1942 – May 14, 2021) was a Canadian-American professor. He held the title of the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University and was an influential social psychologist wh ...
and Constance Stillinger (1988).
[
Reactive devaluation could be caused by ]loss aversion
Loss aversion is the tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains. The principle is prominent in the domain of economics. What distinguishes loss aversion from risk aversion is that the utility of a monetary payoff depends o ...
or attitude polarization
In social psychology, group polarization refers to the tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. These more extreme decisions are towards greater risk if individuals' initial tendenci ...
,[ or ]naïve realism
In philosophy of perception and philosophy of mind, naïve realism (also known as direct realism, perceptual realism, or common sense realism) is the idea that the senses provide us with direct awareness of objects as they really are. When refer ...
.[
]
Studies
In an initial experiment, Stillinger and co-authors asked pedestrians in the US whether they would support a drastic bilateral nuclear arms
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
reduction program. If they were told the proposal came from President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
, 90 percent said it would be favorable or even-handed to the United States; if they were told the proposal came from a group of unspecified policy analysts, 80 percent thought it was favorable or even; but, if respondents were told it came from Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
only 44 percent thought it was favorable or neutral to the United States.Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
led to the university divesting of South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n assets because of the apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
regime. Students at Stanford were asked to evaluate the University's divestment plan ''before'' it was announced publicly and ''after'' such. Proposals including the actual eventual proposal were valued more highly when they were hypothetical.Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i participants a peace proposal which had been actually proposed by Israel. If participants were told the proposal came from a Palestinian source, they rated it lower than if they were told (correctly) the identical proposal came from the Israeli government. If participants identified as "hawkish
In politics, a war hawk, or simply hawk, is someone who favors war or continuing to escalate an existing conflict as opposed to other solutions. War hawks are the opposite of doves. The terms are derived by analogy with the birds of the same name ...
" were told it came from a "dovish
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
" Israeli government, they believed it was relatively bad for their people and good for the other side, but not if participants identified as "doves".
See also
*Genetic fallacy
The genetic fallacy (also known as the fallacy of origins or fallacy of virtue) is a fallacy of irrelevance in which arguments or information are dismissed or validated based solely on their source of origin rather than their content. In other word ...
*Bulverism
Bulverism is a type of ad hominem rhetorical fallacy that combines circular reasoning and the genetic fallacy with presumption or condescension. The method of Bulverism is to "assume that your opponent is wrong, and explain his error." The Bulveri ...
*In-group favoritism
In-group favoritism, sometimes known as in-group–out-group bias, in-group bias, intergroup bias, or in-group preference, is a pattern of favoring members of one's in-group over out-group members. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, ...
References
{{reflist, refs=
[Lee Ross, Constance A. Stillinger, "Psychological barriers to conflict resolution", Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation, Stanford University, 1988]
p. 4
/ref>
[{{cite journal, last1=Ross, first1=Lee, last2=Stillinger, first2=Constance, title=Barriers to Conflict Resolution, journal=Negotiation Journal, date=1991, volume=7, issue=4, pages=389–404, doi=10.1111/j.1571-9979.1991.tb00634.x]
[{{cite book, last=Ross, first=Lee, title=Barriers to Conflict Resolution, year=1995, publisher=WW Norton & Co, location=New York, editor=Kenneth Arrow, editor2=Robert Mnookin, editor3=Lee Ross, editor4=Amos Tversky, editor5=Robert B. Wilson, chapter=Reactive Devaluation in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, chapter-url=https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/default/files/child-page/370999/doc/slspublic/Reactive%20Devaluation.pdf, isbn=9780393331769, url-status=bot: unknown, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160614221816/https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/default/files/child-page/370999/doc/slspublic/Reactive%20Devaluation.pdf, archivedate=2016-06-14]
[Ross, L., & Ward, A. (1996)]
Naive realism in everyday life: Implications for social conflict and misunderstanding
In T. Brown, E. S. Reed & E. Turiel (Eds.), Values and knowledge (pp. 103–135). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. {{ISBN, 9780805815214
[{{cite journal, last1=Maoz, first1=I., last2=Ward, first2=A., last3=Katz, first3=M., last4=Ross, first4=L., title=Reactive Devaluation of an "Israeli" vs. "Palestinian" Peace Proposal, journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution, date=2002, volume=46, issue=4, pages=515–546, doi=10.1177/0022002702046004003]
Cognitive biases