An atmosphere effect in formal syllogistic reasoning

Abstract

The problem of the study was to discover the psychological factors operating toward the acceptance of invalid conclusions in a syllogism test. "Three such factors are suggested: the ambiguity of the word some, which is used in a distributive sense in logic ('at least some') and very often in a partitive sense in ordinary speech ('only some'); 'caution' or wariness, favoring the acceptance of weak and guarded rather than of strong conclusions; and 'atmosphere,' the global impression of 'feel' of the premises, which is affirmative or negative, universal or particular. Examination of the data from two experiments indicates that nearly all the acceptances of invalid conclusions can possibly be explained by these three hypothetical factors." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1935 American Psychological Association.