Feeling Conflicted and Seeking Information: When Ambivalence Enhances and Diminishes Selective Exposure to Attitude-Consistent Information

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Volumn 39, Issue 6, 2013, Pages 735-747

  Sawicki, Vanessa ^a   Wegener, Duane T ^a   Clark, Jason K ^b   Fabrigar, Leandre R ^c   Smith, Steven M ^d   Durso, Geoffrey R O ^a  

^a OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF IOWA   (United States)

^c QUEEN S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^d SAINT MARY S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

attitude strength; attitude structure; attitudinal ambivalence; information seeking; selective exposure

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; ATTITUDE; ATTITUDE STRENGTH; ATTITUDE STRUCTURE; ATTITUDINAL AMBIVALENCE; CONFLICT; CONTROL; DECISION MAKING; EMOTION; FEMALE; HUMAN; INFORMATION SEEKING; MALE; MOTIVATION; PILOT STUDY; PREDICTIVE VALUE; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; SELECTIVE EXPOSURE; YOUNG ADULT;

ATTITUDE STRENGTH; ATTITUDE STRUCTURE; ATTITUDINAL AMBIVALENCE; INFORMATION SEEKING; SELECTIVE EXPOSURE;

ADULT; ATTITUDE; CHOICE BEHAVIOR; CONFLICT (PSYCHOLOGY); DECISION MAKING; EMOTIONS; FEMALE; HUMANS; INTERNAL-EXTERNAL CONTROL; MALE; MOTIVATION; PILOT PROJECTS; PREDICTIVE VALUE OF TESTS; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84878056871     PISSN: 01461672     EISSN: 15527433     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0146167213481388     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Abelson R. P.,Aronson E.,McGuire W. J.,Newcomb T. M.,Rosenberg M. J.,Tannenbaum P. H.Theories of cognitive consistency: A sourcebook. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally; 1968:.
2. Aiken L. S.,West S. G.Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE; 1991:.
3. Armitage C. J.Beyond attitudinal ambivalence: Effects of belief homogeneity on attitude-intention-behaviour relations.European Journal of Social Psychology. 2003;33:551-563.
4. Armitage C. J.,Conner M.Attitude ambivalence: A test of three key hypotheses.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2000;26:1421-1432.
5. Aronson E.,Carlsmith J. M.Effects of severity of threat in the devaluation of forbidden behavior.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1963;66:584-588.
6. Aronson E.,Mills J.The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1959;59:177-181.
7. Bassili J. N.Meta-judgmental versus operative indexes of psychological attributes: The case of measures of attitude strength.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1996;71:637-653.
8. Biek M.,Wood W.,Chaiken S.Working knowledge, cognitive processing, and attitudes: On the determinants of bias.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 1996;22:547-556.
9. Brannon L. A.,Tagler M. J.,Eagly A. E.The moderating role of attitude strength on selective exposure to information.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2007;43:611-617.
10. Brehm J. W.Postdecision changes in the desirability of alternatives.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1956;52:384-390.
11. Chaiken S.,Liberman A.,Eagly A. H.Unintended thought: Limits of awareness, intention, and control. Uleman J. S.Bargh J. A., ed. Newark, NJ: Guilford; 1989:212-252.
12. Cialdini R. B.,Trost M. R.,Newsom J. T.Preference for consistency: The development of a valid measure and the discovery of surprising behavioral implications.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1995;69:318-328.
13. Clark J. K.,Wegener D. T.,Fabrigar L. R.Attitudinal ambivalence and message-based persuasion: Motivated processing of proattitudinal information and avoidance of counterattitudinal information.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2008;34:565-577.
14. Davidson A. R.,Yantis S.,Norwood M.,Montano D. E.Amount of information about the attitude object and attitude-behavior consistency.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1985;49:1184-1198.
15. Edwards K.,Smith E. E.A disconfirmation bias in the evaluation of arguments.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1996;71:5-24.
16. Ehrlich D.,Guttman I.,Schonbach P.,Mills J.Postdecision exposure to relevant information.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1957;54:98-102.
17. Erber M. W.,Hodges S. D.,Wilson T. D.Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences. Petty R. E.Krosnick J., ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1995:433-454.
18. Fabrigar L. R.,MacDonald T.,Wegener D. T.The handbook of attitudes. Albarracin D.Johnson B.Zanna M., ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 2005:79-124.
19. Fabrigar L. R.,Wegener D. T.,MacDonald T. K.Then a miracle occurs: Focusing on behavior in social psychological theory and research. Agnew C. R.Carlston D. E.Graziano W. G.Kelly J. R., ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2010:162-185.
20. Festinger L.Informal social communication.Psychological Review. 1950;57:271-282.
21. Festinger L.A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press; 1957:.
22. Festinger L.,Carlsmith J. M.Cognitive consequences of forced compliance.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1959;58:203-211.
23. Fischer P.,Jonas E.,Frey D.,Schulz-Hardt S.Selective exposure to information: The impact of information limits.European Journal of Social Psychology. 2005;35:469-492.
24. Frey D.Advances in experimental social psychology. Berkowitz L., ed. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 1986:41-80.
25. Hart W.,Albarracin D.,Eagly A. H.,Lindberg M.,Brechan I.,Merrill L.Feeling validated versus being correct? A meta-analysis of selective exposure to information.Psychological Bulletin. 2009;135:555-588.
26. Johnston L.Resisting change: Information-seeking and stereotype change.European Journal of Social Psychology. 1996;26:799-825.
27. Krosnick J. A.,Boninger D. S.,Chuang Y. C.,Berent M. K.,Carnot C. G.Attitude strength: One construct or many related constructs?.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1993;65:1132-1151.
28. Lewan P. C.,Stotland E.The effects of prior information on susceptibility to an emotional appeal.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1961;62:450-453.
29. Maio G. R.,Bell D. W.,Esses V. M.Ambivalence and persuasion: The processing of messages about immigrant groups.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1996;32:513-536.
30. Mills J.Effect of uncertainty about a decision upon postdecision exposure to consonant and dissonant information.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1965;2:749-752.
31. Newby-Clark I. R.,McGregor I.,Zanna M. P.Thinking and caring about cognitive inconsistency: When and for whom does attitudinal ambivalence feel uncomfortable?.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2002;82:157-166.
32. Nordgren L. F.,van Harreveld F.,van der Pligt J.Ambivalence, discomfort, and motivated information processing.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2006;42:252-258.
33. Priester J. R.,Petty R. E.The gradual threshold model of ambivalence: Relating positive and negative bases of attitudes to subject ambivalence.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1996;71:431-449.
34. Sawicki V.,Wegener D. T.,Clark J. K.,Fabrigar L. R.,Smith S. M.,Bengal S. T.Seeking confirmation in times of doubt: Selective exposure and the motivational strength of weak attitudes.Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2011;2:540-546.
35. Smith S. M.,Fabrigar L. R.,Norris M. E.Reflecting on six decades of selective exposure research: Progress, challenges, and opportunities.Social & Personality Psychology Compass. 2008;2:464-493.
36. Smith S. M.,Fabrigar L. R.,Powell D. M.,Estrada M. J.The role of information processing capacity and goals in attitude-congruent selective exposure effects.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2007;33:948-960.
37. Ullrich J.,Krueger J. I.Interpersonal liking from bivariate attitude similarity.Social Psychological & Personality Science. 2010;1:214-221.
38. van Harreveld F.,van der Pligt J.,de Liver Y. N.The agony of ambivalence and ways to resolve it: Introducing the MAID model.Personality and Social Psychology Review. 2009;13:45-61.
39. Wegener D. T.,Downing J.,Krosnick J. A.,Petty R. E.Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences. Petty R. E.Krosnick J., ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1995:455-487.
40. Wood W.The retrieval of attitude-relevant information from memory: Effects of susceptibility to persuasion on intrinsic motivation.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1982;42:798-810.
41. Wood W.,Kallagren C. A.,Preisler R. M.Access to attitude-relevant information in memory as a determinant of persuasion: The role of message attributes.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1985;21:73-85.
42. Wood W.,Rhodes N. D.,Biek M.Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences. Petty R. E.Krosnick J., ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1995:283-314.
43. YangL. (2011). The effects of ambivalence on information preference and choice. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.