I want to believe: prior beliefs influence judgments about the effectiveness of both alternative and scientific medicine

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dc.contributor.authorVicente Holgado, Lucía
dc.contributor.authorBlanco Bregón, Fernando
dc.contributor.authorMatute, Helena
dc.date.accessioned2025-07-09T12:18:43Z
dc.date.available2025-07-09T12:18:43Z
dc.date.issued2023-03-24
dc.date.updated2025-07-09T12:18:43Z
dc.description.abstractPrevious research suggests that people may develop stronger causal illusions when the existence of a causal relationship is consistent with their prior beliefs. In the present study, we hypothesized that prior pseudoscientific beliefs will influence judgments about the effectiveness of both alternative medicine and scientific medicine. Participants (N = 98) were exposed to an adaptation of the standard causal illusion task in which they had to judge whether two fictitious treatments, one described as conventional medicine and the other as alternative medicine, could heal the crises caused by two different syndromes. Since both treatments were completely ineffective, those believing that any of the two medicines worked were exhibiting a causal illusion. Participants also responded to the Pseudoscience Endorsement Scale (PES) and some questions about trust in alternative therapies that were taken from the Survey on the Social Perception of Science and Technology conducted by FECYT. The results replicated the causal illusion effect and extended them by revealing an interaction between the prior pseudoscientific beliefs and the scientific/pseudoscientific status of the fictitious treatment. Individuals reporting stronger pseudoscientific beliefs were more vulnerable to the illusion in both scenarios, whereas participants with low adherence to pseudoscientific beliefs seemed to be more resistant to the illusion in the alternative medicine scenario.en
dc.description.sponsorshipSupport for this research was provided by Grant PID2021-126320NB-I00 from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Spanish Government, as well as Grant IT1696-22 from the Basque Governmenten
dc.identifier.citationVicente, L., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2023). I want to believe: prior beliefs influence judgments about the effectiveness of both alternative and scientific medicine. Judgment and Decision Making, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1017/JDM.2022.3
dc.identifier.doi10.1017/JDM.2022.3
dc.identifier.eissn1930-2975
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14454/3185
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherSociety for Judgment and Decision making
dc.rights© The Author(s), 2023
dc.subject.otherAlternative medicine
dc.subject.otherCausal illusion
dc.subject.otherCausal learning
dc.subject.otherCognitive bias
dc.subject.otherPseudoscience
dc.titleI want to believe: prior beliefs influence judgments about the effectiveness of both alternative and scientific medicineen
dc.typejournal article
dcterms.accessRightsopen access
oaire.citation.issue1
oaire.citation.titleJudgment and Decision Making
oaire.citation.volume18
oaire.licenseConditionhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
oaire.versionVoR
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