It's fascinating when someone gets so smitten with a theory that explains EVERYTHING. Lately, Chris Mooney can't stop purring about "motivated reasoning," which he discusses at length in this article. It's even given him insight into his own behavior:
Blogs"“and blog commenting"“allow us to respond even more rapidly (without calm reflection) and emotionally (without editorial filter) than before. They are therefore a very ripe environment for motivated reasoning to occur. And indeed, I must confess that I have done this, albeit unwittingly until now"“and I challenge any blogger who writes about contentious matters to claim that he or she has not.
So that explains his shabby treatment of Matthew Nisbet when the latter tried engaging in the comment threads here and here last month. Mooney simply wasn't aware of his own churlish, passive aggressive tone. Well, armed with this new awareness, I'm sure next time around Mooney will do a better job at concealing his hostility to ideas that are contrary to his own.
