Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/320721 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] European Economic Review [Volume:] 172 [Article No.:] 104929 [Publisher:] Elsevier BV [Place:] Amsterdam [Year:] 2025
Publisher: 
Elsevier BV, Amsterdam
Abstract: 
We study the relationship between moral values (‘‘ought’’ statements) and factual beliefs (‘‘is’’ statements). We show that thinking about values affects the beliefs people hold. This effect is mediated by prior political leanings, thereby contributing to the polarization of factual beliefs. We document these findings in a pre-registered online experiment with a nationally representative sample of over 1,800 individuals in the US. We also show that participants do not distort their beliefs in response to financial incentives to do so, suggesting that deep values exert a stronger motivational force than financial incentives.
Subjects: 
Motivated beliefs
Values
Polarization
Experiment
Reasoning
JEL: 
C90
D72
D74
D83
P16
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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