Belief operationalization for empirical research in psychological sciences
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Belief operationalization for empirical research in psychological sciences Eduardo Camina1,2 · Javier Bernacer1 · Francisco Guell1 Accepted: 4 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The most common definition of belief is taken from analytical philosophy, which under‑ stands it as a proposition that is considered as true. Such a broad definition is ambiguous for some fields of empirical research, like psychology, which deals with the mental state of the believer when holding the belief. This article aims to reach an operationalization of beliefs to pinpoint their distinctive features with respect to similar concepts (knowledge, opinion, preference, perception or prediction, for instance). We summarize the most influ‑ ential interpretations of belief in psychology and psychiatry, which are mainly based on Immanuel Kant and analytical philosophy. We also expose the problem that arises from putting the mental states of beliefs, knowledge, opinions and preferences in the same bag. Our proposal is that a belief is: (1) a proposition that is taken to be true; and (2) which the subject is willing to hold even if irrefutable evidence were hypothetically argued against it. We introduce a narrower interpretation to reliably discriminate the mental state of believ‑ ing, which is intended to be applied to empirical psychology, neuroscience, behavioral eco‑ nomics, sociology and related sciences. Keywords Knowledge · Opinion · Belief · Preference · Proposition · Propositional attitude “Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is” (Johan W. von Goethe). “The word ‘belief’ is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it –I don’t need to believe it” (Carl Jung). “The most interesting and valuable things about a man are his ideals and over-beliefs” (William James). “A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but satisfying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery).
* Javier Bernacer [email protected] 1
Mind‑Brain Group, Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), Universidad de Navarra, Edificio Biblioteca Central, Campus Universitario s/n., 31008 Pamplona, Navarra, Spain
2
Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Navarra, 31008 Pamplona, Spain
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1 Introduction In academia, the most accepted definition of belief is the one proposed by analytic philoso‑ phy: “Contemporary Anglophone philosophers of mind generally use the term ‘belief’ to refer to the attitude we have, roughly, whenever we take something to be the case or regard it as true” (Schwitzgebel 2019). In common language, the Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘belief’ as “the feeling of being certain that something exists or is true”. Furthermore, the verb ‘believe’ is defined as “to think that something is true, correct or r
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