Selective Exposure in the Internet Age: The Interaction between Anxiety and Information Utility

The rise of the Internet forces scholars to reevaluate the frequency and nature of political information seeking in the contemporary period. The functionality of the Internet makes passive exposure more difficult, and selective information seeking easier, than in the past. However, people may also use the Internet in a new and directed way—to arm themselves with information to express and defend their views either online or in the real world. The central question we explore in this paper is what explains balanced versus biased information seeking in the era of the Internet? We combine insights from Sears and Freedman (1967 ) with newer work on emotion to predict motivated selectivity: focusing specifically on the interaction between anxiety and information utility. Our central theoretical claim is that anxiety does not simply boost any information seeking; it triggers information seeking that is useful for addressing the problem at hand. Anxiety alone, therefore, does not guarantee a balanced information search. When counterattitudinal information is useful for some reason—for example, to defend their own opinions to others who may disagree—anxious citizens should seek it out. As a consequence, these subjects should learn more specific information about where each candidate stands on the issues. In an experiment we find support for these hypotheses. We conclude that while today's flexible Internet environment may permit selectivity, balanced seeking should still occur under a fairly common set of circumstances.     

A cross‐cultural investigation into a reconceptualization of ethnocentrism

This investigation tests a reconceptualization of ethnocentrism based primarily on Sumner's definitions. Ethnocentrism is reconceptualized as ethnic group self‐centeredness, with four intergroup expressions of ingroup preference, superiority, purity, and exploitativeness, and two intragroup expressions of group cohesion and devotion. The reconceptualization was supported in Study 1 among 350 New Zealand participants and in Study 2 among 212 US, 208 Serbian, and 279 French participants. Ethnocentrism in each country consisted of two correlated second‐order factors representing intergroup and intragroup ethnocentrism and six first‐order factors representing the six primary expressions. Analyses in Study 2 supported the measurement invariance of the scale and a third‐order factor model, with one ethnocentrism factor at the broadest level of generalization. Ethnocentrism was empirically distinct from outgroup negativity and mere ingroup positivity. Intragroup ethnocentrism appeared primarily based on ethnic insecurity, personal self‐transcendence, and ethnic identification, whereas intergroup ethnocentrism appeared primarily based on self‐aggrandizement, warlikeness, and generally chauvinistic attitudes. Accordingly, although related, the two kinds of ethnocentrism tend to have quite differential implications for group attitudes and behaviors. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This article was published online on 31 December 2008. Errors were subsequently identified. This notice is included in the online and print versions to indicate that both have been corrected [date to be added later].     

Neural correlates of the perception of goal-directed action in infants

We investigated the neural correlates of the perception of human goal-directed action by 8-month-old infants. Infants viewed video loops of complete and incomplete actions, which they could discriminate according to our pilot study, while we recorded their electrophysiological brain activity. Analysis of bursts of gamma-band oscillations resulting from passive viewing of these stimuli indicated increased gamma-band activity over left frontal regions when viewing incomplete actions as compared with complete actions. These results suggest that by 8 months infants are sensitive to the disruption of perceived goal-directed actions.     

Culture, gender, and the self: variations and impact of social comparison processes

Psychological differences between women and men, far from being invariant as a biological explanation would suggest, fluctuate in magnitude across cultures. Moreover, contrary to the implications of some theoretical perspectives, gender differences in personality, values, and emotions are not smaller, but larger, in American and European cultures, in which greater progress has been made toward gender equality. This research on gender differences in self-construals involving 950 participants from 5 nations/cultures (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia) illustrates how variations in social comparison processes across cultures can explain why gender differences are stronger in Western cultures. Gender differences in the self are a product of self-stereotyping, which occurs when between-gender social comparisons are made. These social comparisons are more likely, and exert a greater impact, in Western nations. Both correlational and experimental evidence supports this explanation.     

Cognitive dissonance,double forced compliance,and commitment

Double forced compliance situations are studied to analyse how attitudes change after the performance of two behaviours, rather than just one as in standard forced (or induced) compliance situations. In the present experiment, subjects were asked to execute two successive counterattitudinal behaviours: writing an essay in favour of selective admission to the third year of university (first behaviour) and giving a convincing speech in favour of selective admission (second behaviour). The first behaviour was always performed in a high‐commitment context (free choice, publicness, and consequences), whereas the second was performed in a high‐commitment context as well as in a low‐commitment context (free choice, anonymity, and no consequences). The following hypotheses were tested. (1) If the second behaviour is performed in a high‐commitment context, it will increase the dissonance induced by the first. (2) If the second behaviour is performed in a low‐commitment context, it will decrease the dissonance induced by the first. The results confirmed both hypotheses, which comply with the radical version of dissonance theory (Beauvois & Joule, 1996 , 1999 ). As a whole, these results are incompatible with competing theories of Festinger's theory of dissonance (1957), and in particular with self‐perception and impression‐management theories. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Suppression and hypothesis testing: does suppressing stereotypes during interactions help to avoid confirmation biases?

Recent work indicates that trying not to think in stereotypical terms increases the accessibility of stereotypical information, which paradoxically results in more stereotypical judgments. The present study translated the colour‐blindness ideology in general and stereotype suppression research in particular into an hypothesis testing setting. Participants who were asked to suppress their stereotypes when selecting a set of questions were indeed less guided by ambient stereotypes than control participants, thereby showing a reduction of the classical confirmation orientation in question preferences. Still, compared to control participants, suppressors also later reported more polarized impressions such that consistent targets were seen as more stereotypical and inconsistent ones as more counter‐stereotypical. Moreover, group evaluations were more stereotypical for suppressors than for controls indicating that suppression had led to stronger activation of the stereotypical representation. Results are discussed in light of the prevailing belief regarding the benefits of political correctness and colour‐blindness. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adjusting researchers’ approach to adjustment: On the use of covariates when testing interactions

A common design in social psychology involves the use of two independent variables, an experimental manipulation and a measured individual difference, and the interest is in the interaction between them. In such designs, there are often obvious covariate(s), correlated with the measured independent variable, which the researcher wishes to control. Typically this is done by including the covariate in the analytic model. We show that in most cases this is an inadequate model. In general, the interaction between the two independent variables will be estimated without bias only when the interaction between the covariate and the manipulated independent variable is included in the analysis. We present simulations showing the factors affecting the magnitude of the bias and provide a survey of recent social psychological literature illustrating the frequency of the problem. Finally, we discuss cases where both independent variables are manipulated and the covariate is a potential mediator.     

The addition of saccharin to taste cues affects taste preference conditioning in thirsty rats

Previous failures to condition preferences for the unacceptable taste cues sucrose octaacetate (SOA) and citric acid (CA) using a reverse-order, differential conditioning procedure (Forestell & LoLordo, 2000) may have been the result of low consumption of the taste cues in training or of their relatively low acceptability to rats that are thirsty and hungry. In the present study, rats that were thirsty but not hungry readily consumed the SOA and CA conditioned stimulus solutions in training. In test, stronger preferences were displayed for CS+ if the taste cues had been mixed in water (i.e., for the previously unacceptable taste cues) than if they had been made more acceptable by the addition of saccharin in training and test. In Experiment 2, again with rats that were thirsty but not hungry, stronger preferences for CS+ were observed when taste cues were presented in water in the test than when they were presented in saccharin. Addition of saccharin to the taste cues in test eliminated the preference for CS+.