The Effects of Taking a Position on Reason Generation and Evaluations within Confrontational Themes

Focusing on Counterarguments

Abstract

The present study examines the effects of taking a position on the generation of reasons and reason evaluations within confrontational themes. Japanese university and college students (N=342) generated reasons that support both my-side and other-side positions under three different conditions. Students either (1) adopted a position before the reason generation task (prior condition), (2) adopted a position and wrote a supporting reason before the task (prior+condition), or (3) adopted a position after completing the task (after condition). Students in the after condition generated more counterarguments that pointed out weaknesses in their supported position than students in the other two conditions. Moreover, the students in the after condition made more flexible comparisons of reasons in determining the most important reason.