Using belief-perception mismatch to assess the meaning of Subjective Attitude Verbs

Subjective Attitude Verbs (SAVs) like find and consider are known to embed only propositions that express a subjective judgement or opinion of the attitude holder. A point of contention, however, is whether both of the subjective attitudes involve a doxastic component. In this study, we empirically assess the doxastic status of SAVs by testing the acceptability rating of attitude reports with the two SAVs in contexts of potential doxastic conflict (PDC). Results showed that attributions with find in PDC contexts produced significantly lower acceptability rates than their counterparts with consider, suggesting that find, but not consider, lacks a doxastic component in its denotation.