Cognitive Discrepancy, Dissonance, and Selective Exposure

Abstract

Although cognitive dissonance is regarded as one of the most recognized causes of selective exposure [N. J. Stroud, Niche News (Oxford University Press, 2011)], the mechanism for such causation is still unclear. By inducing dissonance in a web-based experiment, this study demonstrates how cognitive dissonance relates to information preferences—the intention to seek congruent information and the intention to seek incongruent information. The findings suggest that perceived hostility with respect to one’s belief (cognitive discrepancy) can enhance the intention to seek out for attitude-consistent information. More importantly, individuals were found to have the intention to avoid counterattitudinal information, but only when they experienced some sort of psychological discomfort (dissonance). In other words, while cognitive discrepancy leads individuals to crave for confirming information, only those who encounter negative emotions are likely to employ avoidance of disconfirming information as a dissonance-reduction strategy.

Notes

1. This experimental design was extracted from a larger design with two more manipulations. For one, the structure of the blog post was manipulated (global vs. interspersed). While participants in the global condition were exposed to the news story before the blogger’s critique, those in the interspersed condition had the news story and critique intermingled. In addition, the tone of the critique was manipulated (civil vs. uncivil). Participants in the civil condition viewed a critique with a civil and polite tone while those in the uncivil condition were exposed to an uncivil, impolite critique of the news story. As no significant differences were found with respect to both criterion variables at .05 level, this study collapsed the eight conditions and utilized a two-cell design.