Examining the Influence of Anecdotal Stories on Scientific Reasoning

We aim to partially replicate the findings from Rodriguez et al. (2016) which showed that anecdotal stories increased experiential reasoning while also decreasing scientific reasoning when evaluating a set of news-like article. In this experimental design, participants read a scientific news report about the relationship between antagonistic relationships and social development. Participants share their open thoughts, rate their agreement with the article, then justify what reasons they used to either agree or disagree with the article. The anecdote (experimental) condition describes a first-person anecdotal reflection that ties in with the article's claim that "frenemies improves children's social development". This anecdote is then followed by a short summary of a study. The active control includes descriptive text, roughly the same length as the anecdote manipulation, that ties in with the article's claim that "frenemies improves children's social development". This anecdote is then followed by a short summary of a study. The control only contains the short summary of a study.