Motivated reasoning is “a phenomenon studied in cognitive science and social psychology that uses emotionally-biased reasoning to produce justifications or make decisions that are most desired rather than those that accurately reflect the evidence, while still reducing cognitive dissonance”. In other words, motivated reasoning is the "tendency to find arguments in favor of conclusions we want to believe to be stronger than arguments for conclusions we do not want to believe". This phenomenon “stands in contrast to critical thinking, where beliefs are approached in a skeptical and unbiased fashion.”
— From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The article goes on to explain: “It can lead to forming and clinging to false beliefs despite substantial evidence to the contrary. The desired outcome acts as a filter that affects evaluation of scientific evidence and of other people.”

Example: Our dog Whiskey believes, deep in her bones, that only murderers ring doorbells. Since it is her prime directive to meet murderers with the utmost of ferocity, all visitors that approach the front door are assumed to be murderers until proven otherwise. Proof of not being a murderer appears to be confirmed by smell*, but no amount of evidence provided by the non-murderers already within the house can overcome her motivated reasoning. Her pre-existing belief outweighs all arguments to the contrary.

I see some evolutionary wisdom in this. If, after a thorough sniffing, she is confronted with overwhelming evidence of the visitor’s non-murderer status and suspends her hostility until further notice, there is no harm, foul, or shame experienced as a consequence of her pre-existing belief. Better to act as if the murderers are coming and be wrong than to act as if a visitor is merely dropping off a package from Jeff, only to have them dispatch her humans. Or so she tells me. 

There are some fascinating theories on how and why we developed this ‘skill’ and why it became a common trait among humans**. The simplest explanation is that those with this trait survived long enough to reproduce and/or reproduced more often than those that did not have this trait, or least had it to a lesser degree. Something about it was beneficial to brilliant monkeys in open woodland and savanna-like environments. 

However, as far as we can tell, they did not have social media in their tool set. They weren’t ‘happy Zorzog’ in the cave but ‘conspiracy Zorzog’ at the water hole.  Theirs was a simpler time and they were who they were, wherever they were —- down at the water hole, scavenging carrion, picking mushrooms, snoring in a cave... Zorzog was always the same ol’ Zorzog, no matter where you encountered him. Just like our faithful canine is always the same old howling-and-barking-out-of-her-mind-at-the-doorbell-Whiskey, no matter how many times the door bell has been rung without a follow up from a hearse. 

I think a lot about what I am motivated to believe and whether or not it makes sense. I believe that I came to Star & Sparrow to be a farmer. I believe that it will challenge me in worthwhile ways and make me happy. But over the course of several hours today, instead of being responsible and productive, I wrote 5 pages in my conservation journal on observations pertaining to activities of gulls, ravens, crows, ducks, herons; male/female, flying, swimming, foraging, preening; wind, rain, water levels and their locations. I thought about how much I enjoy collecting, documenting, and analyzing data. I thought about how much I would enjoy reviewing these notes years into the future, considering all that I might learn by then, and the observations that I’ve yet to make. I’ve not been thinking about the recycling piling up in the garage, tractor maintenance, preparing for spring planting, or how we’re going to harvest, cure, and sell the Oaxacan green dent corn we’ve committed to growing for the a Dry Farming Collaborative project next year. No, my mind has been bent on conservation.

Is this why I’m here?  Sometimes the ‘motivation’ for one thing leads you to a different ‘reason’ or purpose. Maybe I couldn’t have imagined the reason from where I was before; maybe I was not honest with myself about what I really wanted. Or maybe the world has simply changed since it inspired my motivation, and now it needs something different from me. Yes, of course we will keep learning about farming! But I’m excited by the possibility that by suspending my motivated reasoning and the inputs that encourage it (ahem, looking at you Zuck), I might discover that farming here might not just be about growing food, but something far more complex and interesting.
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*I’ve yet to discover what a murderer smells like, but for this kind of salary, a professional perfumer ought to be able to whip something up.
**One of my favorites is in the book “Thinking In Bets...” by Annie Duke