Effects of Reader Belief and Critical Thinking Disposition on Morally Biased Reading

Abstract

Some readers are unable to accurately comprehend texts and tend to distort the meaning based on social or moral desirability. To investigate the characteristics of readers who avoid reading based on moral schema, this study administered the Reader Belief Questionnaire, a critical thinking disposition scale, and a task in which participants had to evaluate the appropriateness of concluding sentences in the following situations: (1) appropriate sentences which were derived from the earlier context, (2) inappropriate sentences, and (3) morally biased sentences. The results of the experiment indicated that readers who scored high on the “inquiry mind” factor of the critical thinking scale and had a critical thinking disposition could distinguish appropriate conclusions from the moral biased ones. This indicates that an inquisitive mind with the desire for a wider variety of information affects the process of evaluating information while deriving conclusions, and encourages unbiased and appropriate reading.