Belief Perseverance

Two studies tested the influence of accessibility experiences on belief perseverance when participants generated few or many reasons about how a reported outcome or an alternative outcome might have turned out. Those participants who had listed many reasons about the reported outcome rated this outcome after debriefing to be less likely – and hence exhibited no belief perseverance – than participants who had listed few reasons or subjects in a standard perseverance group (Experiment 1). In contrast, participants who had listed many reasons favoring an alternative outcome rated the reported outcome to be more likely and thus showed more belief perseverance than subjects who had listed only few reasons or participants in a standard perseverance condition (Experiment 2). Both effects are interpreted as evidence for the influence of accessibility experiences in the domain of belief perseverance.