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| The Effects of Prior Salience on Individual Information Processing: An Empirical Study on Controversy Judgment |
| Ma Dandan1, Cen Yonghua1, Gan Liren1, Wu Chengyao2 |
1. School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094;
2. College of Finance, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095 |
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Abstract In information processing, individuals systematically prefer information that is consistent with their belief, attitude, and decision, and ignore or devaluate those inconsistent information, which is known as confirmatory information processing. From information sampling perspective, an individual’s prior and prior-consistent information is attached with high salience and is sampled disproportionately by individuals. The more-salient samples are pivotal to judgment and decision-making. An experimental study explores how individuals are holding different prior attitudes sample and evaluate the pro and con messages on a controversial topic. It finds strong evidence of a prior attitude salience. Specifically, in the attitude development process, individuals sample more information from their attitudes, instead of the attitude advocated by a message. In the information evaluation process, the prior attitude significantly affects an individual’s perception of the message attitude, evaluation of the informativeness of the message, and recall of the arguments (including arguments contained in the message and self-generated arguments). However, when the participants are free to select which message to read, the presentation order of the messages, rather than the prior attitudes, affects the selection behavior. The present study enriches our understanding of the biased information processing. It also has practical implications for real decision-making scenarios, such as persuasion and marketing, public opinion, and scientific knowledge communication.
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Received: 12 June 2017
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