This refers to human reasoning that is influenced by emotional attachment to underlying biased motives. People are generally found to process any new information that they come across in light of their prior beliefs. They do not change long-held beliefs to which they are emotionally attached even in the face of new information that clearly refutes such beliefs. This is because they have already made a huge emotional investment in a belief and changing it would cause them pain. Motivated reasoning can cause people to hold onto erroneous views despite the presence of evidence to the contrary.
