The effect of incentives on motivated numeracy amidst COVID-19

Abstract

How does political ideology affect the processing of information incongruent with one's worldview? The disagreement in prior research about this question lies in how one's ideology interacts with cognitive ability to shape motivated numeracy or the tendency to misinterpret data to confirm one's prior beliefs. Our study conceptually replicates and extends previous research on motivated numeracy by testing whether monetary incentives for accuracy lessen motivated reasoning when high- and low-numeracy partisans interpret data about mask mandates and COVID-19 cases. This research leverages the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, as Americans are polarized along party lines regarding an appropriate government response to the pandemic.