Living Congenially: Contextual, Relational, and Metacognitive Facilitators of Agreeable Political Information Environments

Selective exposure;Motivated reasoning;Belief superiority;Information seeking;Psychology;Social Sciences;Psychology

Hall, MichaelRaimi, Kaitlin ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Selective exposure;    Motivated reasoning;    Belief superiority;    Information seeking;    Psychology;    Social Sciences;    Psychology;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/144108/mikeph_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This dissertation examines how people find themselves in mostly congenial political information environments as a result of contextual, relational, and metacognitive factors. Specifically, the goal of this dissertation is to understand how selective exposure—the phenomenon by which people are more often exposed to congenial (vs. uncongenial) information (Hart et al., 2009)—is reached in multiple contexts. Selective exposure can be achieved via attitude selectivity, in which people actively choose exposure to information that validates their views over information that challenges those views (Hart et al., 2009), or de facto selectivity, in which people simply live in environments that facilitate exposure to more congenial (vs. uncongenial) information (Sears & Freedman, 1967). I examine these processes across 11 studies drawn from three areas of research. First, in an examination of contextual facilitators of selective exposure, I analyze results from a yearlong longitudinal study of American adults’ perceptions of climate change to assess whether people of differing beliefs about climate change: (a) sought out different types of weather or climate information; (b) varied in their perceptions about local and national weather; (c) and experienced different temperature and severe weather patterns in their local areas (;;Climate Change Beliefs: Perceptual and Objective Variations”). Second, to examine relational facilitators of selective exposure, I present four studies of how people in relational dyads exchange information with each other. Specifically, I examine both how selectors choose information on behalf of others, and how recipients evaluate such information. From both perspectives, I examine how (a) likability between selectors and recipients, (b) attitudinal agreement between selectors and recipients, and (c) congeniality of selected or received information influence selection and reception of information (;;Blinded by Liking: Selective Exposure Within Dyadic Relationships”). Third, to assess metacognitive facilitators of selective exposure, I present six studies examining whether people who express belief superiority—the belief that one’s views are superior to alternative viewpoints—about various political issues can justify that alleged superiority by demonstrating superior issue-relevant knowledge. Furthermore, I explore how they seek out additional issue-relevant information (;;Is Belief Superiority Justified by Superiority Knowledge?”). Together, these three projects suggest that selective exposure to mostly congenial (vs. uncongenial) information can be facilitated by contextual, relational, and metacognitive factors. I also discuss the implications of each set of results for the social psychological study of attitude selectivity and de facto processes, as well as implications for future attempts to intervene and reduce biased information consumption.