Project Awarded: $8,000
Many problems and disagreements are increasingly discussed by groups rather than individuals—both online and in person. However, most reasoning research focuses on individuals reasoning in isolation, offline, and/or in otherwise unrealistic settings such as lying on their back in a brain scanner (e.g., Frith et al., 2021; Tik et al., 2018). These studies can reveal valuable insight about individuals’ reasoning, but there are still opportunities to better understand the more social, dialogical, and sometimes online processes involved in real-world group reasoning and disagreement.
We will study online group reasoning and disagreement in more ecologically valid settings, both online (Cullen, Chapkovski, et al., 2020) and in person. The main design involves two strangers with opposite views having brief, prompted conversations. We analyze discussion’s effects on critical thinking (e.g., logic puzzles), creative thinking (e.g., alternative use tasks), controversial policies (e.g., minimum wage increases), and provocative philosophical thought experiments (e.g., moral dilemmas). Functional neuroimaging (fNIRS) will also reveal the neural mechanisms of discussion and its effects. This research will better reveal how discussion can be different online, improve potentially faulty intuitions, improve creativity, depolarize polarized topics, and even change peoples’ minds.
Daina Crafa, PhD. Assistant Professor, Aarhus University
Nick Byrd, PhD. Assistant Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology
Shadab Tabatabaeian, PhD Candidate. University of California, Merced
Austin Baker, PhD. Post-doctoral Fellow, Rutgers University
Trey Boone, PhD. Visiting Fellow, Duke University