There is an ‘I’ in truth: How salient identities shape dynamic perceptions of truth

This research examined the hypothesis that people judge as true those claims aligned with normative content of their salient social identities. In Experiment 1a, participants’ identities were manipulated by assigning them to ‘inductive-thinker’ and ‘intuitive-thinker’ groups. Participants subsequently made truth judgements about aphorisms randomly associated ‘science’ ‘popular wisdom’. Those inductive-thinker judged science-based more truthful than popular wisdom-based a greater extent intuitive-thinker 1b was preregistered replication, additional conditions eliminating an alternative semantic-priming explanation. 2, American Conservatives Liberals ideological difference attenuated through manipulation framed participants moderate they had originally indicated. Overall, these experiments suggest identity-truth malleability, such making specific can lead related perceptions normatively