Fear - Driven Inference : Mechanisms 2 of Gut Overreaction

6 are a key part of such assessments, but sometimes they can lead people astray, as 7 in motivated inference when people believe what fits with their desires. In contrast 8 to motivated inference, fear-driven inference generates beliefs that people do not 9 want to be true. Although paradoxical, this kind of inference is common in many 10 domains, including romantic relationships, health, parenting, politics, and eco11 nomics. This paper proposes that fear-driven inference results from gut overre12 actions, in which a feeling that something is wrong is erroneously taken as 13 evidence that something really is wrong. We discuss psychological and neural