science

Reactive devaluation

Reactive devaluation is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Reactive devaluation rather than just read about it. In short: Reactive devaluation is a cognitive bias that occurs when a proposal is devalued if it appears to originate from an antagonist. The bias was proposed by Lee Ross and Constance Stillinger (1988).

Key takeaways

Reactive devaluation belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Reactive devaluation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Reactive devaluation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Reactive devaluation is a cognitive bias that occurs when a proposal is devalued if it appears to originate from an antagonist. The bias was proposed by Lee Ross and Constance Stillinger (1988). Reactive devaluation could be caused by loss aversion or attitude polarization, or naïve realism.

Studies In an initial experiment, Stillinger and co-authors asked pedestrians in the US whether they would support a drastic bilateral nuclear arms reduction program. If they were told the proposal came from President Ronald Reagan, 90 percent said it would be favorable or even-handed to the United States; if they were told the proposal came from a group of unspecified policy analysts, 80 percent thought it was favorable or even; but, if respondents were told it came from Mikhail Gorbachev only 44 percent thought it was favorable or neutral to the United States. In another experiment, a contemporaneous controversy at Stanford University led to the university divesting of South African assets because of the apartheid regime. Students at Stanford were asked to evaluate the University's divestment plan before it was announced publicly and after such. Proposals including the actual eventual proposal were valued more highly when they were hypothetical. In another study, experimenters showed Israeli participants a peace proposal which had been actually proposed by Israel. If participants were told the proposal came from a Palestinian source, they rated it lower than if they were told (correctly) the identical proposal came from the Israeli government. If participants identified as "hawkish" were told it came from a "dovish" Israeli government, they believed it was relatively bad for their people and good for the other side, but not if participants identified as "doves".

See also Genetic fallacy Bulverism In-group favoritism The Boy Who Cried Wolf Shooting the messenger

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Reactive devaluation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Reactive devaluation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Reactive devaluation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Reactive devaluation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Reactive devaluation

In research: Reactive devaluation appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Reactive devaluation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Reactive devaluation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cognitive biases, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Reactive devaluation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Reactive devaluation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Reactive devaluation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Reactive devaluation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Reactive devaluation in simple terms?

Reactive devaluation is a cognitive bias that occurs when a proposal is devalued if it appears to originate from an antagonist. The bias was proposed by Lee Ross and Constance Stillinger (1988).

Why does Reactive devaluation matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Reactive devaluation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Reactive devaluation.