Scale?

[The2abraxis]

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Hey there, been busy, but I have a question some of you may be able to help me with. It might sound a little weird, but is there a reliable/valid scale that rates levels of intellectual dishonesty?? Also, if there is not such a thing, would it be harsh to say that an authoritarianism rating scale could be similar???

 

[PsyDr]

what do you mean by intellectual dishonesty?

there are deception scales and effort measures....

 

[73BARMYPgsp]

what do you mean by intellectual dishonesty?

there are deception scales and effort measures....

An example of intellectual dishonesty would be like this:

Person 1: "I am for the death penalty because a. it is just, b. it is a deterrent, c. the deceased cannot forgive their murderer because they are dead.

Person 2: "Well, it doesn't bring the dead person back to life."

Person 2 is being intellectually dishonest because person 1 did not posit "it brings the deceased back to life" as part of their argument. They have engaged in a classic non-sequiter to derail the discussion.

Another example would be:

Person 1. "I think we should immediately pull out all troops from Iraq."
Person 2. "Well there might be consequences to that including destabilzation of the region and genocide if we do that."
Person 1 "I am not unpatriotic"

Person 1 has defended something that was not attacked, again to muddy the discussion. Intellectually dishonest.
(Notwithstanding who is "right" or "wrong" in the discussion)

 

[thewesternsky]

Um, I'm pretty sure the OP wants a scale with items like "I cheat on tests," and "If I paraphrase something, I don't need to tell people it wasn't my idea."

I can't think of one off-hand, tbh. Good luck!

 

[73BARMYPgsp]

Um, I'm pretty sure the OP wants a scale with items like "I cheat on tests," and "If I paraphrase something, I don't need to tell people it wasn't my idea."

I can't think of one off-hand, tbh. Good luck!

Could be. That would be more like scale 4 on the MMPI-2. In which case, I totally wasted my time with that very long reply. 🙂

 

[The2abraxis]

well by intellectual dishonesty, i mean the trait of refusing to drop your opinion/belief/thought about something (and change it) if there is compete evidence agaist your belief/opinion/thought.

for ex:

person 1 is in a car and driving, and passes a red light. person 2 says, "you just passed that red light, here i took a video, look." person 1 sees the video and it is clear he went through a red light but replies, "no i didnt. I am right". In this person 1 is intellectualy dishonest because he is "lying" to himself by refusing to see the evidence against him.

a rather extreme example, but something of that sort. anything to measure this kind of trait??

 

[PsyDr]

try the cognitive dissonance literature.

 

[cmuhooligan]

well by intellectual dishonesty, i mean the trait of refusing to drop your opinion/belief/thought about something (and change it) if there is compete evidence agaist your belief/opinion/thought.

for ex:

person 1 is in a car and driving, and passes a red light. person 2 says, "you just passed that red light, here i took a video, look." person 1 sees the video and it is clear he went through a red light but replies, "no i didnt. I am right". In this person 1 is intellectualy dishonest because he is "lying" to himself by refusing to see the evidence against him.

a rather extreme example, but something of that sort. anything to measure this kind of trait??

I would look into the impression management/self deception literature. One scale that comes to mind is the BIDR (Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding).

 

[cara susanna]

Couldn't this also relate to cognitive rigidity?