What is motivated reasoning?

Motivated reasoning is a concept in personal epistemology: Looking for evidence that supports your schema is not the same as rigorously testing it.

Example: You believe that early-stage startups should always prioritize speed over code quality. Every time a fast-moving team succeeds, you mentally bookmark it. Every time a careful team fails, you note that too. But you never look for the fast teams that crashed from technical debt or the careful teams that outlasted their competitors. You have been confirming, not validating. Validation would require you to actively search for cases where speed killed a startup — and honestly weigh them against your schema.

This concept is part of Phase 15 (Schema Validation) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for schema validation.