Uncertainty Orientation in the Group Context: Categorization Effects on Persuasive Message Processing

Abstract

Persuasive messages often originate from in-group or out-group sources. Theoretically, in-group categories could facilitate heuristic-based message processing (because of the attractiveness of in-groups and their social reality cues) or systematic-based processing (because of high personal relevance of the message). The authors expected individual differences in uncertainty orientation and socially based expectancy congruence to be important variables in understanding these processes. Participants were exposed to strong or weak, in-group or out-group messages that were either expectancy congruent (in-group agreement, out-group disagreement) or expectancy incongruent (in-group disagreement, out-group agreement). As predicted, uncertainty-oriented participants increased systematic information processing under incongruent conditions relative to congruent (i.e., relatively certain) conditions; certainty-oriented individuals processed systematically only under congruent conditions. These findings suggest that uncertainty that has been created through social-categorization conflicts is treated differently by people of different personality styles.     

Promoting systematic processing in low-motivation settings: effect of incongruent information on processing and judgment

Ss received consensus information that was either congruent or incongruent with the valence of persuasive message content. In Experiment 1 Ss believed that their processing task was either important or unimportant whereas in Experiment 2 all Ss believed that their task was unimportant. In accord with the heuristic-systematic model's sufficiency principle, high-task-importance Ss exhibited a great deal of systematic processing regardless of congruency, whereas low-importance Ss processed systematically only when they received incongruent messages; in the congruent conditions heuristic processing dominated. Attitude data generally reflected these processing differences and confirmed the additivity and attenuation assumptions of the model. The utility of the sufficiency principle for understanding motivation for elaborative processing and the relevance of the findings to understanding the processing and judgmental effects of expectancy disconfirmation are discussed.     

Forgetting congruent and incongruent stereotypical information

In 2 studies, the authors investigated the directed-forgetting effects of stereotypically congruent, incongruent, and irrelevant information, after the in-group (Swedish) and out-group (immigrant) social categories had been subliminally primed. Because of recent theories of the role of attention and level of processing in the cognitive development of stereotypes, we hypothesized that directed-forgetting effects would be found for stereotype-congruent and irrelevant information but not for stereotype-incongruent information. The results supported our hypothesis, suggesting that the level of processing demanded by the type of information (regardless of whether congruent, incongruent, or irrelevant) may moderate directed-forgetting effects. The authors discussed the social implications of the results.     

Forgetting Congruent and Incongruent Stereotypical Information

Abstract

In 2 studies, the authors investigated the directed-forgetting effects of stereotypically congruent, incongruent, and irrelevant information, after the in-group (Swedish) and out-group (immigrant) social categories had been subliminally primed. Because of recent theories of the role of attention and level of processing in the cognitive development of stereotypes, we hypothesized that directed-forgetting effects would be found for stereotype-congruent and irrelevant information but not for stereotype-incongruent information. The results supported our hypothesis, suggesting that the level of processing demanded by the type of information (regardless of whether congruent, incongruent, or irrelevant) may moderate directed-forgetting effects. The authors discussed the social implications of the results.     

Processing of persuasive in-group messages

Two studies investigated the processes mediating the persuasive impact of messages representing in-group opinions. In the 1st study, subjects read either a strong or a weak message attributed to either an in-group member or to another group. Subjects were more persuaded by a strong message from the in-group than a weak one, suggesting content-focused processing of the in-group message. Subjects were equally unpersuaded by either a strong or a weak message from the other group, and showed little sign of message processing. In the 2nd study, Ss listened to in-group or other-group messages about issues that varied in their relevance to in-group membership. When the issue was relevant to the in-group, subjects were persuaded by a strong message from the in-group, unpersuaded by a weak message from the in-group, and equally unimpressed by strong and weak messages from the other group. When the issue was irrelevant to the in-group, subjects accepted the position advocated by the in-group regardless of message quality, and again ignored messages from the other group. These results suggest that increased message processing, and not merely the impact of source persuasion cues, can underlie in-group-mediated attitude change.     

双向偏见引发冲突情境下自我归类对民族社会化觉察的影响——来自景颇族、傣族和汉族初中生的证据

采用情境实验法和故事补全任务,考察双向偏见引发冲突情境下的自我归类对景颇族、傣族与汉族初中生的民族社会化觉察的影响。结果表明,作为冲突事件的当事者,景颇族学生和傣族学生觉察到的促进和睦、文化社会化及促使不信任等民族社会化信息存在差异;景颇族、傣族和汉族学生的自我归类存在差异;自我归类对促进和睦、文化社会化与报告权威等信息的觉察的影响亦存在民族差异。在双向偏见冲突情境下,三族学生的自我归类与民族社会化觉察有一定关系:无论是做当事者/内群体归类、旁观者/外群体归类,还是做调解者/群际归类,被试对促进和睦的觉察均最多。偏见准备主要与当事者归类有关,而进行调解者归类的被试更容易觉察到"报告权威"。     

The impact of violations on uncertainty and the consequences for attractiveness

This investigation aimed at extending past research on expectation violations by arguing that violations vary both in valance and in their influence on uncertainty and that the combination of valence and uncertainty states conjointly influences judgments of a violator's social attractiveness. In explaining the predicted variance in uncertainty following violations, a distinction is proposed between congruent violations (i.e., behaviors that are more intense instantiations of a previously displayed message) and incongruent violations (i.e., behaviors that are opposite in meaning from previously displayed messages). Five models for explaining violation effects are contrasted. Results (a) confirm that violations differ in their impact on uncertainty, (b) generally support the validity of the proposed distinction between congruent and incongruent violations, and show that the inclusion of uncertainty and valence in models of violation outcomes accounts for greater variance in social attraction than either one separately.     

Words as Weapons—When Do They Wound? Investigations of Harmful Speech

The following investigations juxtapose jurisprudence and communication literatures to examine under what conditions racist speech is perceived as harmful. Specifically, one theory of legal liability, the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, and one intergroup approach, social identity theory, guided three empirical studies investigating verbally disturbing communication targeted at Asian Americans. The studies examined how the attribution of harm was influenced by variables such as group membership, message severity, message explicitness and the medium ofpresentation. One finding in particular, an interaction between group membership and message explicitness (direct vs. indirect), emerged across the three studies. Results revealed that as “objective” evaluators of deprecating speech, out-group members attributed the direct messages of racism to be more harmful than in-group members did, but, conversely, in-group members evaluated the indirect messages of racism to be more harmful than the out-group members did. Theoretical explanations for this finding and its resulting legal implications are discussed.     

Motivational and cognitive determinants of control during conflict processing

Previous studies suggest that both reward anticipation and expected or experienced conflicts activate cognitive control. The present study investigated how these factors interact during conflict processing. In two experiments, participants performed a variant of the Stroop task, receiving performance-dependent monetary rewards in some blocks. In addition, we manipulated the level of conflict-triggered reactive and expectancy-driven proactive control: In Experiment 1, we compared the Stroop effect after previously congruent and incongruent trials to examine the conflict adaptation effect (reactive control). We found that the level of motivation did not interact with conflict adaptation. In Experiment 2, we varied the proportion of congruent and incongruent trials to manipulate conflict expectancy (proactive control). The data suggest the effects of motivation to be less pronounced under conditions of high conflict expectancy. We conclude that the interaction of motivation with cognitive determinants of control depends on whether these activate proactive or reactive control processes.     

Selective self-categorization: meaningful categorization and the in-group persuasion effect

Research stemming from self-categorization theory (Turner et al., 1987) has demonstrated that individuals are typically more persuaded by messages from their in-group than by messages from the out-group. The present research investigated the role of issue relevance in moderating these effects. In particular, it was predicted that in-groups would only be more persuasive when the dimension on which group membership was defined was meaningful or relevant to the attitude issue. In two studies, participants were presented with persuasive arguments from either an in-group source or an out-group source, where the basis of the in-group/out-group distinction was either relevant or irrelevant to the attitude issue. Participants' attitudes toward the issue were then measured. The results supported the predictions: Participants were more persuaded by in-group sources than out-group sources when the basis for defining the group was relevant to the attitude issue. However, when the defining characteristic of the group was irrelevant to the attitude issue, participants were equally persuaded by in-group and out-group sources. These results support the hypothesis that the fit between group membership and domain is an important moderator of self-categorization effects.     

Matching temporal frame to recipients' time orientation in exercise messaging: Does argument quality matter?

ObjectivesIn this study, the extent to which argument quality impacts upon tailoring effects in exercise messages is explored.Design2 (Strong versus Weak) × 2 (Tailored versus Not Tailored) Experimental Design.Method127 young adults (Mage = 20.70, SD = 3.06) received either strong or weak messages about a new exercise class that were tailored to be congruent or incongruent with their chronic time-orientation.ResultsNo main effects for message tailoring were found, but a significant interaction between argument quality and message tailoring emerged for two dependent variables: instrumental attitudes and willingness to recommend the class to a friend. Under tailored conditions, scores for both dependent variables were significantly higher for those who received a strong argument than for those who received a weak argument, whereas there was no difference between those who viewed a strong and a weak argument in the non-tailored conditions.ConclusionsThe study corroborates findings from other research that tailored messages are most likely to be consequential under conditions of strong argument quality.     

Minority versus majority influence and uncertainty orientation: processing persuasive messages on the basis of situational expectancies

The authors examined the effects of uncertainty orientation on processing persuasive messages from minority sources versus majority sources. The authors gave participants a proattitudinal or counterattitudinal message that either a numerical majority or a numerical minority endorsed and that contained strong or weak arguments. In support of the hypothesis that was related to message scrutiny, uncertainty-oriented individuals engaged in greater message scrutiny when the Source-Position (i.e., minority/majority-pro/con) pairing was imbalanced (in majority-con, minority-pro conditions) than when it was balanced (in majority-pro, minority-con conditions). Certainty-oriented participants showed the opposite pattern, scrutinizing the message more when the situation was balanced than when the situation was imbalanced. Support for the hypothesis that was related to nonsystematic processing was less clear because the majority appeared to have played a greater role in accounting for the aforementioned interaction than did the minority. Additional analyses supported this interpretation. However, in all cases, individual differences in uncertainty orientation moderated strength and direction of information processing.     

Implicit associations as the seeds of intergroup bias: how easily do they take root?

Three experiments provided evidence that intergroup bias occurs automatically under minimal conditions, using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In Experiment 1, participants more readily paired in-group names with pleasant words and out-group names with unpleasant words, even when they were experienced only with the in-group and had no preconceptions about the out-group. Participants in Experiment 2 likewise showed an automatic bias favoring the in-group, even when in-group/out-group exemplars were completely unfamiliar and identifiable only with the use of a heuristic. In Experiment 3, participants displayed a pro-in-group IAT bias following a minimal group manipulation. Taken together, the results demonstrate the ease with which intergroup bias emerges even in unlikely conditions.     

社会认知中的样例激活效应与内-外群体效应

采用信号检测论技术,以人格词单记忆为实验任务,探讨社会认知过程中样例激活效应与内-外群体效应对记忆过程的干扰作用.实验结果表明,(1)样例激活与群体范畴的交互效应对社会信息加工过程存在显著干扰作用.(2)与外群体相比,内群体的信息加工更不易受到干扰;与积极样例特质相比,消极他相关样例特质的信息加工更不易受到干扰.(3)在加工内群体成员信息而激活的是反面样例时,被试的判断标准最严.     

Threatening joy: Approach and avoidance reactions to emotions are influenced by the group membership of the expresser

It has been repeatedly stated that approach and avoidance reactions to emotional faces are triggered by the intention signalled by the emotion. This line of thought suggests that each emotion signals a specific intention triggering a specific behavioural reaction. However, empirical results examining this assumption are inconsistent, suggesting that it might be too short-sighted. We hypothesise that the same emotional expression can signal different social messages and, therefore, trigger different reactions; which social message is signalled by an emotional expression should be influenced by moderating variables, such as the group membership of the expresser. In two experiments, we show that group membership influences approach and avoidance reactions to emotional expressions: Emotions (fear and happiness) expressed by in-group members elicited concordant behaviour, whereas emotions expressed by out-group members activated the reverse pattern. A third experiment, in which participants directly evaluated smiling and fearful individuals resembling in-group and out-group members supported this result.     

Experiencing Racial Humor with Outgroups: A Psychophysiological Examination of Co-Viewing Effects

Research on co-viewing (or group viewing) is scarce. Yet, co-viewing has important implications for the viewers’ entertainment experience and the way viewers respond to and evaluate entertainment—especially those with controversial messages. The present study investigated responses to racial humor content among racial in-group and out-group viewing contexts. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which Blacks and Whites would experience discomfort when viewing racial slurs in comedies with in-group compared to out-group members. Employing real-time psychophysiological data and multilevel time series models, the study found a significant increase in emotional arousal (indicated by SCRs) and distraction (indicated by RSA) among Blacks in the context of out-group viewing compared to in-group viewing, but not for Whites. Implications of findings are discussed.     

A Comparison of Updating and Explanation as Causes of the Incongruity Effect on Person Memory

Abstract

Information that is incongruent with a prior expectancy is remembered better than congruent information. Two explanations were investigated: (a) people attempt to explain incongruent information to understand it, and (b) people use incongruent information to update their expectancies. The common assumption in these two accounts is that the additional cognitive processing stimulated by incongruent information is responsible for the incongruity effect. In this study, U.S. students were explicitly requested to engage in one or the other of these processes. Although both processes resulted in an incongruity effect, there was a positive correlation between recall of expectancy-congruent and expectancy-incongruent items in the impression-updating condition but not in the other condition; those in the impression-updating condition showed greater expectancy change.     

Does Location Uncertainty Modulate Unconscious Processing Under Continuous Flash Suppression?

Previous research suggests that selective spatial attention is a determining factor for unconscious processing under continuous flash suppression (CFS), and specifically, that inattention toward stimulus location facilitates its unconscious processing by reducing the depth of CFS (Eo et al., 2016). The aim of our study was to further examine this modulation-by-attention model of CFS using a number priming paradigm. Participants (N = 26) performed a number comparison task on a visible target number (“compare target to five”). Prime-target pairs were either congruent (both smaller or larger than five) or incongruent. Spatial attention toward the primes was varied by manipulating the uncertainty of the primes’ location. Based on the modulation-by-attention model, we hypothesized the following: In trials with uncertain prime location, RTs for congruent prime-target pairs should be faster than for incongruent ones. In trials with certain prime location, RTs for congruent versus incongruent prime-target pairs should not differ. We analyzed our data with sequential Bayes factors (BFs). Our data showed no effect of location uncertainty on unconscious priming under CFS (BF0+ = 5.16). However, even visible primes only weakly influenced RTs. Possible reasons for the absence of robust number priming effects in our study are discussed. Based on exploratory analyses, we conclude that the numerical order of prime and target resulted in a response conflict and interfered with the predicted priming effect.     

EQUIVOCATION: CHARACTER INSURANCE

This study investigated the effects of equivocation (deliberate vagueness) on source credibility (competence and character), agreement, and perceived vagueness. The results indicated that the equivocated message produced significantly higher character ratings for the speaker than did the clearly stated disagreeable message, but there was no significant difference for the competence ratings. The equivocated message also produced significantly more agreement than the clear message. These findings, as well as others, led the researchers to conclude that equivocating disagreeable arguments helps preserve credibility—most notably the character ratings; and that character is the best predictor of message agreement. The results were interpreted in terms of information processing theory, suggesting that equivocated messages evoke meanings which are congruent with prior experience and attitudes. In contrast to the tenet advocated since antiquity that all issues should be addressed clearly, this study indicates that under certain circumstances the speaker can enhance effectiveness by using the rhetorical technique of deliberate vagueness.     

Punishing Individuals for Their Infirmities: Effects of Personal Responsibility, Just-World Beliefs, and In-Group/Out-Group Status

This research examined how derogation of cancer victims was moderated by (a) the perceived responsibility of the victim, (b) individual differences in just-world beliefs, and (c) whether the victim was an in-group versus out-group member. Participants formed an impression of an in-group or an out-group member who was known to have a terminal case of cancer. Half of the participants were informed that the target person was partially responsible for this medical condition, whereas the remaining participants were not given this information. Results showed that blaming judgments of high versus low responsibility targets were moderated by just-world beliefs, but this was only true when the person being judged was an out-group member. The implications of these results for research and theory on differential processing of in-group versus out-group members are discussed.