Reactive devaluation is a

cognitive bias A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm (philosophy), norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of reality, not the ...

that occurs when a proposal is devalued if it appears to originate from an antagonist. The bias was proposed by

Lee Ross Lee David Ross (August 25, 1942 – May 14, 2021) was a Canadian-American professor. He held the title of the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University and was an influential social psychologist wh ...

and Constance Stillinger (1988). Reactive devaluation could be caused by

loss aversion In cognitive science and behavioral economics, loss aversion refers to a cognitive bias in which the same situation is perceived as worse if it is framed as a loss, rather than a gain. It should not be confused with risk aversion, which descri ...

attitude polarization In social psychology, group polarization refers to the tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. These more extreme decisions are towards greater risk if individuals' initial tendenci ...

, or

naïve realism In philosophy of perception and epistemology, naïve realism (also known as direct realism, manifest realism or perceptual realism) is the idea that the senses provide us with direct awareness of objects as they really are. When referred to as ...

Studies

In an initial experiment, Stillinger and co-authors asked pedestrians in the US whether they would support a drastic bilateral

nuclear arms A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

reduction program. If they were told the proposal came from President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

, 90 percent said it would be favorable or even-handed to the United States; if they were told the proposal came from a group of unspecified policy analysts, 80 percent thought it was favorable or even; but, if respondents were told it came from

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

only 44 percent thought it was favorable or neutral to the United States. In another experiment, a contemporaneous controversy at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

led to the university divesting of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n assets because of the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

regime. Students at Stanford were asked to evaluate the University's divestment plan ''before'' it was announced publicly and ''after'' such. Proposals including the actual eventual proposal were valued more highly when they were hypothetical. In another study, experimenters showed

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i participants a peace proposal which had been actually proposed by Israel. If participants were told the proposal came from a Palestinian source, they rated it lower than if they were told (correctly) the identical proposal came from the Israeli government. If participants identified as " hawkish" were told it came from a " dovish" Israeli government, they believed it was relatively bad for their people and good for the other side, but not if participants identified as "doves".

References

{{reflist, refs= Lee Ross, Constance A. Stillinger, "Psychological barriers to conflict resolution", Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation, Stanford University, 1988
p. 4
/ref> {{cite journal, last1=Ross, first1=Lee, last2=Stillinger, first2=Constance, title=Barriers to Conflict Resolution, journal=Negotiation Journal, date=1991, volume=7, issue=4, pages=389–404, doi=10.1111/j.1571-9979.1991.tb00634.x, doi-access=free {{cite book, last=Ross, first=Lee, title=Barriers to Conflict Resolution, year=1995, publisher=WW Norton & Co, location=New York, editor=Kenneth Arrow, editor2=Robert Mnookin, editor3=Lee Ross, editor4=Amos Tversky, editor5=Robert B. Wilson, chapter=Reactive Devaluation in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, chapter-url=https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/default/files/child-page/370999/doc/slspublic/Reactive%20Devaluation.pdf, isbn=9780393331769, url-status=bot: unknown, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160614221816/https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/default/files/child-page/370999/doc/slspublic/Reactive%20Devaluation.pdf, archivedate=2016-06-14 Ross, L., & Ward, A. (1996)
Naive realism in everyday life: Implications for social conflict and misunderstanding
In T. Brown, E. S. Reed & E. Turiel (Eds.), Values and knowledge (pp. 103–135). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. {{ISBN, 9780805815214 {{cite journal, last1=Maoz, first1=I., last2=Ward, first2=A., last3=Katz, first3=M., last4=Ross, first4=L., title=Reactive Devaluation of an "Israeli" vs. "Palestinian" Peace Proposal, journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution, date=2002, volume=46, issue=4, pages=515–546, doi=10.1177/0022002702046004003, s2cid=145771170 Cognitive biases

Studies

See also

References