Cognitive tuning sets: Anticipating the consequences of communication

This paper reviews the literature on cognitive tuning sets: the expectations of having to transmit or receive information. It is shown that having to transmit information leads to a unified and distorted summary being transmitted, a reluctance to receive additional information, a rejection of inconsistent information, and a shaping of the material to accommodate the anticipated audience. As well, the opinions of the transmitters become polarized. It is argued that the receiver condition is probably not the correct control group to use since the outcome depends on the uncontrolled perceived goals. It is suggested that future research should probably treat the multiple effects of cognitive tuning sets separately. An integrated explanation is given in terms of anticipating the consequences of communication. This work was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Grants Scheme.