The Effect of Information Quality Evaluation on Selective Exposure in Informational Cognitive Dissonance: The Role of Information Novelty

In fictional decision-making, research on selective exposure (the tendency to expose oneself to consistent information and avoid inconsistent information, Festinger, 1957) shows that this phenomenon may be partly due to a biased evaluation quality of information. The present study seeks to establish whether this biased evaluation also occurs with informational dissonance (Vaidis and Gosling, 2011). More specifically, we examined (1) whether an individual’s attitude or behavior may be biased by information perception; and (2) whether this phenomenon was related to the perception of the information’s novelty. In two successive studies, participants evaluated the quality and the novelty of information and their desire to expose themselves to it. The information in the texts dealt with the effects of passive smoking, alcohol, and electromagnetic waves (Study 1) and GMOs (Study 2). For each of these topics, one text emphasized their harmlessness (tobacco and electromagnetic waves) or the positive effects (alcohol and GMOs), whereas the second presented the negative effects on health. The hypotheses were tested using moderated mediation models. The results differed according to the subjects addressed and the novelty of the information submitted. Among several possible explanations for the findings, we suggest that the valence of the texts on items considered harmful for health plays a role.