The Full quote
Francis Bacon observed that “[the human understanding resembles not a dry light, but admits a tincture of the will and passions, which gen- erate their own system accordingly, for man always believes more readily that which he prefers.“' Contemporary psychologists have reached the same conclusion as Bacon. The notion has even become widespread in popular culture. Witness the linguists' “word of the year“ for 2005:
“truthiness,“ defined as “the quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.““ Psychologists have referred to this process as motivated reasoning, where motivation refers to any “wish, desire or preference that concerns the outcome of a given reasoning task... “ Numerous studies illustrate the phenomenon. For example, one early experiment demonstrated how subjects, informed that they were either a better or worse performer than average, were able to easily, and self-servingly, explain their better or worse performance.“ Likewise, studies of doctors, accountants, auditors, and lawyers demonstrate such motivated reasoning.'
“truthiness,“ defined as “the quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.““ Psychologists have referred to this process as motivated reasoning, where motivation refers to any “wish, desire or preference that concerns the outcome of a given reasoning task... “ Numerous studies illustrate the phenomenon. For example, one early experiment demonstrated how subjects, informed that they were either a better or worse performer than average, were able to easily, and self-servingly, explain their better or worse performance.“ Likewise, studies of doctors, accountants, auditors, and lawyers demonstrate such motivated reasoning.'