Abstract
The present research investigated the impact of a social information source's physical attractiveness on selective exposure to decision-relevant information. In two studies, support was found for the hypothesis that physically attractive information sources lead decision makers into being more selective in both searching for (Studies 1 and 2; selective exposure) and evaluating (Study 2; biased assimilation) decision-relevant information. In both studies, the effect was driven by differences in the selection and evaluation of decision-consistent information, that is, physically attractive information sources led to increases in the perceived quality of decision-consistent information as well as increased selective exposure to this information. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Notes
1We thank the action editor of this paper for his important additional ideas on the theoretical innovations of our research.