Value-Congruent Information Processing: The Role of Issue Involvement and Argument Strength

Two experimental studies were carried out to investigate the influence of value-congruent information on information processing. We hypothesized that recipients would engage in systematic processing in value-congruent conditions, whereas heuristic processing would be used in value-incongruent conditions. One hundred participants in each experiment received a message that was framed in either environmental/altruistic or economical/egoistic terms, containing either strong or weak arguments. Results showed that value-congruent messages resulted in discrimination between strong and weak arguments, whereas for value-incongruent messages argument strength had either weak or no effects. Implications and future research are discussed.