Beliefs as Social Game Moves

Motivated reasoning is often a strategic response to social incentives: people adopt or amplify (even false) claims because those claims win persuasion, protect reputation, or advance status in social games — not primarily because the claims soothe an individual’s private anxieties. This flips the usual 'wishful thinking' story and suggests we should study reputational and persuasive payoffs to understand why false beliefs spread. — If belief adoption is mainly strategic, policy and communication interventions should target social incentives and reputational dynamics rather than just correcting emotional comfort or cognitive bias.