Reports of the Death of Expertise May Be Exaggerated: Limits on Knowledge Resistance in Health and Medicine

During the past decade the idea that expertise is dead, or at best moribund, has become commonplace. Knowledge resistance appears to be growing more politicized and is increasing across a wide range of science-based topics, such as agriculture, evolution and genetics, vaccination, and climate change; even flat-earth beliefs are undergoing a renaissance. But in many of these areas, denying expert authority is cost-free in everyday behavior, making it more rational for people to prize identity and group affiliation over realism. To probe the health of expertise in a domain with everyday consequences for knowledge resistance, we conducted three incentive-compatible studies of laypeople’s preferences for sources of information they would read about specific medical conditions (e.g., heart disease, cancer, COVID-19). We found quite rational preference patterns, by which people preferred sources based on experts (physicians and scientists) over non-experts (celebrities and politicians) and group consensus (professional societies, polls) over individual opinions. These findings held most strongly for issues of personal medical concern, but were robust for less concerning health conditions, and for the highly politicized topic of COVID-19. Individuals who scored higher in intellectual humility and preferences for rational over experiential thinking were more likely to prefer the most expert sources. Expertise retains broad respect in the medical domain, at least when one’s own health is at stake.

Validation of the Hungarian version of the short form of Spiritual Connection Questionnaire (SCQ-14)

Background: Spirituality is a human specific phenomenon associated with positive mental and physical health outcomes. From a scientific point of view, it is a complex construct which can be investigated in various ways. The Spiritual Connection Questionnaire (SCQ) measures spirituality independently from religiousness thus it appears to be an appropriate measure to assess religious and non-religious aspects of spirituality. Aim: The present study aimed to develop and validate the Hungarian version of the short form of the Spiritual Connection Questionnaire (SCQ-14). Furthermore, it aimed to investigate spirituality’s association with affect and thinking style. Methods: Participants of two non- representative community samples (n = 387 and n = 145) completed the following questionnaires online: short form of the Spiritual Connection Questionnaire, Spiritual Transcendence Scale, Rational–Experiential Inventory, and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Results: The Hungarian SCQ-14 showed an excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.94 and 0.97 on Sample 1 and 2, respectively). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated inappropriate fit with the theoretically assumed one-factor model (χ2 = 435.848, df = 77, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.904; NFI = 0.886; RMSEA = 0.110 [90% CI = 0.100–0.120] on Sample 1, and χ2 = 247.132, df = 77, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.917; NFI = 0.885; RMSEA = 0.123 [90% CI = 0.106–0.141] on Sample 2). In contrast, results of exploratory factor analyses indicated a one-factor structure on both samples. The SCQ-14 was positively associated with spiritual transcendence, experiential thinking style, and partly with positive affect. No significant correlations with rational thinking style and negative affect were found. Results of the multiple hierarchical linear regression analysis on both samples revealed a significant contribution of experiential thinking style and spiritual transcendence to spiritual connection after controlling for gender, age, educational qualification, and positive affect. Conclusions: The Hungarian version of the Spiritual Connection Questionnaire (SCQ-14) is a valid, psychometrically sound measure. Spiritual transcendence and experiential thinking style independently contribute to spiritual connection.Elméleti háttér: A spiritualitás humánspecifikus jelenség, amelynek pozitív hatása a testi és mentális egészségre nézve bizonyított. Tudományos szempontból a spiritualitás meglehetősen összetett fogalom, számos különböző mérőeszközzel vizsgálható. A Spirituális Kapcsolat Kérdőív (Spiritual Connection Questionnaire, SCQ) vallástól függetlenül értékeli a spiritualitás szintjét, így vallásos és nem vallásos személyek körében egyaránt alkalmazható. Cél: Jelen kutatás célja Spirituális Kapcsolat Kérdőív rövid változatának (SCQ-14) magyar nyelvű validálása volt. További cél volt a spiritualitás gondolkozási stílussal és affektivitással való összefüggésének vizsgálata. Módszerek: A kutatás két nem reprezentatív mintából áll (n = 387 és n = 145), amelynek résztvevői a Spirituális Kapcsolat Kérdőív rövid változatát, a Spirituális Transzcendencia Kérdőívet, az Észszerűség–Megérzés Kérdőívet, valamint a Pozitív és Negatív Affektivitás Skálát töltötték ki online formában. Eredmények: Az SCQ-14 magyar változata kiváló belső konzisztenciát (Cronbach-α = 0,94 az első, és 0,97 a második mintán) jelzett. A konfirmatív faktoranalízis nem mutatott megfelelő illeszkedést az eredeti egyfaktoros modellhez képest (χ2 = 435,848, df = 77, p < 0,001; CFI = 0,904; NFI = 0,886; RMSEA = 0,110 [90% CI = 0,100– 0,120] az első mintán, és χ2 = 247,132, df = 77, p < 0,001; CFI = 0,917; NFI = 0,885; RMSEA = 0,123 [90% CI = 0,106–0,141] a második mintán). Ezzel szemben a feltáró faktoranalízis eredménye egyfaktoros modellt mutatott mindkét minta esetén. Az SCQ-14 továbbá pozitív irányú összefüggést mutatott a spirituális transzcendenciával, a tapasztalati gondolkodási stílussal, valamint részben a pozitív affektivitással is. A spirituális kapcsolat és negatív affektivitás, valamint a racionális gondolkodási stílus között nem jelentkezett szignifikáns korreláció. A mindkét mintán lefuttatott többszörös hierarchikus lineáris regresszió eredményei szerint a tapasztalati gondolkodás és a spirituális transzcendencia a nem, a kor, az iskolai végzettség és a pozitív affektivitás kontrollálása után is szignifikáns kapcsolatban maradt a spirituális kapcsolat pontszámmal. Következtetések: A Spirituális Kapcsolat Kérdőív rövid változatának magyar verziója valid, jó pszichometriai mutatókkal bíró mérőeszköz. A spirituális transzcendencia és a tapasztalati gondolkodás egymástól függetlenül is hozzájárulnak a spirituális kapcsolathoz.

Puric_REI_validation_preprint_20210424

The widely used Rational-Experiential Inventory-40 (REI-40, Pacini &amp; Epstein, 1999) assesses rational and experiential thinking styles. Recently, the authors have distinguished three aspects of the experiential style: intuition, emotionality and imagination and developed the Rational-Experiential Multimodal Inventory (REIm, Norris &amp; Epstein, 2011; a brief version: REIm-13, McGuiness et al., 2017).We examined the internal consistency, structural/factorial, discriminant and known-groups validity of those three REI versions, in two Serbian student samples. Participants in Study 1 (N = 819, mean age M = 19.81, 31% males) completed REI-40 and HEXACO Personality Inventory (HEXACO-PI-R), while participants in Study 2 (N = 304, mean age M = 19.47, 29% males) completed REIm (including all REIm-13 items), HEXACO-PI-R and Disintegration inventory DELTA.Internal consistency of REI-40 and REIm subscales was acceptable to good, and poor for REIm-13 subscales. Neither of the tested CFA models demonstrated acceptable fit, but EFA revealed two orthogonal factors (i.e. Rationality and Experientiality) for REI-40 and REIm, but not for REIm-13. REI-40 and REIm Rationality, REI-40 Experientiality and REIm Intuition demonstrated good discriminant validity against personality traits, while REIm Experientiality, Emotionality and Imagination correlated highly with Openness and Emotionality. Obtained gender differences indicated acceptable known-groups validity.

Head vs. Heart: Which Path do you Take? Self-Location Shapes Language Use, Indicating Rational and Experiential Thinking Styles

Self-location is a novel construct that identifies a bodily organ (head vs. heart) to represent self-concept. However, how self-location influences verbal performance is not well understood. This research investigates language use associated with self-location, an individual difference construct based on two different metaphoric concepts (use your head vs. follow your heart). Study 1 established the associations between self-location and verbal performance assessed by language variables in two writing tasks. Findings showed that self-location was related to specific language variables (nouns vs. verbs). In Study 2a, self-location was presented as a manipulation of the head-heart metaphor to predict language variables in a decision-making story recalled by participants. In Study 2b, a manipulation check was added, and the Heinz dilemma was used as a writing topic to control responses in different conditions. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrate that the metaphor could facilitate use of specific language variables. Implications of manipulating self-location are discussed.

Edgcumbe. 2019 - The relationship between cognitive reflection and morality judgments are mediated by thinking dispositions.

Performance on Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is thought to predict moral judgments concerning the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ). This relationship is hypothesised to be mediated by the tendency toward thinking dispositions such as actively open-minded thinking (AOT), rational (REI-R) and experiential thinking (REI-E), and religiosity. The relationship between cognitive reflection, intuitive thinking and moral judgments with thinking dispositions are examined. As the MFQ measures five types of moral judgments which include ‘individualising values’ – harm and fairness, and ‘binding values’ - loyalty, authority and purity it was hypothesised that performance on these moral foundations would be influenced by thinking dispositions and cognitive reflection. Results indicate that the relationship between cognitive reflection and moral judgments were mediated differently by thinking dispositions. Religious participants and intuitive thinkers alike scored highly on binding moral values. Analytic thinkers and non-religious participants scored highly on individualising moral values. The data is consistent with religiosity and intuition being inherently linked and suggests that moral values are influenced by individual differences in thinking dispositions and cognitive style.

Relating rational and experiential thinking styles with trait emotional intelligence in broader personality space

The usual distinction between rational and intuitive thinking styles is still a subject of scientific debate, as there is no consensus about their nature, mutual relations and relations to other personality constructs. Cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) proposes rational and experiential thinking styles as original personality constructs not fully explainable by five-factor personality models. Following CEST, we aimed to examine: 1. The uniqueness of rational and experiential dimensions by relating them to other personality constructs: trait emotional intelligence (TEI) and HEXACO; 2. Thinking style profiles defined through combined rational and experiential dimensions, and the possible role of TEI in understanding them. A total of 270 undergraduate students (82% females) completed the TEIQue-SF, REI-40, and HEXACO-PI-R. Our results showed that constructs from all three paradigms were low to moderately correlated to each other. TEI had incremental validity in explaining both rational and experiential dimensions, but large amounts of their variances remained unexplained by both TEI and HEXACO. We revealed four thinking style profiles defined through combined rational and experiential dimensions. TEI was the highest when both dimensions were high and the lowest when both were low, which could be related to processes of understanding and managing emotional functioning – proposed as an essential part of TEI, while within CEST they are seen as the way in which rationality influences experientiality. This finding might be of specific significance for understanding irrationality as not exclusively related to high intuition, but to low rationality as well.

Investigation of Decision Making and Thinking Styles of Volleyball Referees in Terms of Some Variables

This study aims to examine the decision making and thinking styles of volleyball referees in terms of some variables. A total of 91 volleyball referees (51 men and 40 women) in Ankara volunteered to participate in the study. Of the participants, 56 are regional referees while 35 are national referees. The participants were applied rational-experiential thinking styles scale developed by Epstein et al (1996) and adapted into Turkish by Buluş (2000) and decision-making styles scale developed by Scott and Burce (1995) and adapted into Turkish by Taşdelen (2002). It was determined that the data obtained from the study did not show normal distribution according to Shapiro Wilk and Levene tests (p <0.05), therefore, in line with the purposes of the study, the data were analyzed by Mann Whitney U test and Kruskall Wallis test, and the Steel Dwass test was applied to determine the groups from which the difference originated in multiple comparisons. The significance level was accepted as (p <0.05). According to research findings, decision-making styles are significant in terms of gender, age, referee category and experience (years) variables (p<0.05). When the scores of the "cognitive requirement and intuitive belief" subscales of the rational-experiential thinking style scale were examined, significance was determined (p <0.05) in terms of participants' gender, age, referee category and experience variables. Consequently, the research revealed that variables such as gender, age, referee category, and experience had an important impact on the decision-making and rational-experiential thinking styles of volleyball referees.