Experimental Research Of Consequential Conditionals Inference

We believe consequential conditionals to be extremely pervasive in everyday reasoning and decision making. consequential conditionals are defined" if P, then Q" statements , where P is an action , and Q a predicted outcome of this action, which is either desirable or undesirable to the agent.Three experiments have been designed to support this research. The first one is a 2(context: job vs. party) X3(type of conditional: positive consequential, negative consequential, or neutral outcome conditional)within-subject design, and the first claim regarding the inferential properties of consequential conditionals is that they invite an inference to the truth(positive consequential) or the falsity(negative consequential) of their antecedent. The second one is a 2(type of conditional: positive consequential vs. negaive consequential) X 2(extremity of the outcome: moderate vs. extreme) within-subject design, and the second claim is that how type of conditional and extremity of the outcoume influence undergraduates' inference. The third one can be considered either a three-level within-subject factor(all scenarios being confounded) or a three-level between-sujects factor(if results are considered scenario by scenario).A series of experiments lead to three main findings:1.Consequential conditionals with a negative outcome invite an inference to the falsity of their antecedent, whereas consequential conditionals with a positive outcome invite an inference to the truth of their antecedent2.These inference are all more strongly invited when the outcome is strongly negative or positive.3.Modus ponens from premises "if A, then C, A" can be suppressed with the introduction of the additional premise "if C, then Q , "when Q is a consequential conditionals with a negative outcome.